


Solangelo go to Hogwarts

by A_Tomb_With_A_View



Series: Hogwarts is not ready for this [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Demigod Draco Malfoy, F/M, Fluff, I will fight for book Ron honestly, M/M, Nico and Will are basically Draco’s dad, Oblivious Harry, Romione because I actually rly liked it, book Ron, lotsa language soz, sirius lives lol, slowburn drarry bc harry is oblivious, they figure it out earlier bc harry gets defensive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 36,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24041446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Tomb_With_A_View/pseuds/A_Tomb_With_A_View
Summary: Hecate requests that Solangelo travel to Hogwarts to save her son, Sirius Black, and prevent the wizarding war by helping Harry kill Voldemort before countless more die.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson/Jason Grace/Piper McLean (mentioned), Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Nico di Angelo & Draco Malfoy, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Will Solace & Draco Malfoy
Series: Hogwarts is not ready for this [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760104
Comments: 214
Kudos: 580





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sup kids, this is also on Wattpad under the same name because this is a fairly popular trope there, if you’d prefer. It’s pretty cliche, and a different fandom than what I’ve done so far, but it’s one of my favs so I thought I’d give it a go. 
> 
> All italics is Italian, bold is Greek
> 
> Please find me on tumblr under the same name :)

If you’d’ve told Nico four and a half years ago that he would be waking up in the arms of Will Solace in his room in Hades’ palace on the fourth morning of their trip to see Hades and ‘Seph, he would’ve called you insane, and possible knocked your lights out.

But that’s where he found himself, almost five years after the end of the Giants War, drooling on his boyfriend’s shoulder with Jules Albert knocking on the door. 

“Make ‘im go ‘way..” Will whines and pulled him closer. “Please?” 

Nico sighed. “You realise if I send Jules away, dad will be next, right?” He started to disentangle himself from Will. “Now unless you want my father to make comments on the..” he gestured to the hickeys on both of them. “Then I suggest you get up and dressed.” 

Will, as expected, sprung into action. Sure he’d gotten used to Hades, especially after he and ‘Seph had gotten closer, but he was still a nineteen year old boy who didn’t want to be caught by his possibly future father in law doing the nasty with his son in his palace. That was just basic etiquette. 

——

It took them a while to make it down to the dining hall. If you asked Will it was because there was lots of distractions. Nico’s collarbone for example. If you asked Nico it was because Will was a horny bastard who was still getting used to the freedom of not sharing a cabin with fifteen other kids, and Nico was so weak to those eyes and that accent. 

Even once they got there, it took an embarrassingly long moment for Nico to notice Hecate stood next to Hades, frowning disapprovingly at them. “Children-“ 

“My son,” Hades cut in. “William. Please understand, my boys, that this is not punishment, for anything, nor are you obligated to say yes.” Hecate glared at him. “Hecate wishes for you to travel to her pet kingdom, Nico you’ll know of the wizards and witches?” 

Nico nodded. “Horcruxes, ghosts, fuck tonne of headaches for you and Thanny, right?” 

Hades chuckled. “Exactly. Well there is a boy, the one who defeated Tom Riddle a decade and a half ago, Harry Potter, he is in danger. Hecate would like for you to travel to England as students. You’ll be aged back down to fifteen. Hecate would like you to, act as bodyguards, I guess, to Harry Potter and his friends, although if you let on that you’ve been sent for that purpose, you will lose all heir trust.” Nico started to raise his hand. 

“Yes, Nicolò, being fifteen means your tattoos will be gone.” He raised an eyebrow at Nico, who was full on pouting at his father. 

“Can I keep one or two? Pretty please?” 

Hades sighed. “Any that are not easily visible are fine, I suppose. You can’t keep the one on your arms though. I know it’s for Bianca, and if having the tattoo in place wouldn’t cause you as much danger and suspicion as it will, I’d never ask this of you.” 

Nico nodded slowly. “No yeah I get that.” He looked up at Will, raising an eyebrow. Will nodded at him. “We’re in. Been getting a bit boring anyways.” 

Hecate grinned. “Delightful. Now you boys may reveal your true identity only to those who you trust completely. I will provide you with magic and knowledge of a level that is expected of fifteen year old wizards, and by the time you arrive in London, you will have a full background that is well integrated into the knowledge of the English Ministry. I will deliver all of your supplies here. You need to be in King’s Cross Station at platform nine and three quarters by half ten on the first of September. Understood?” 

The boys nodded and she raised her hands as they began to glow. “Magic will not have the same effect on you as it does on others. There will be a separate dormitory for you, due to your nightmares, which will have a training room for you to maintain your current standards. And one more thing. My son, Sirius Black has had some trouble there over the last few years. I feel he is set to die unjustly at the end of your quest. If you can save him..” she trailed off. 

They nodded again, and she pressed her glowing hands to their chests. “Good luck my champions.” 

——

The boys decided to extend their stay in the Underworld for another week so they could practice magic. One night, nearing the end of August, Persephone visited them and convinced them to hold a film night. As everything was being set up, Hades pulled Will aside.

“I wanted to let you know, William, that should you decide to grow a pair and actually use that ring you’re carrying around in your pocket, not only would my son say yes, but you would have my full approval. Nico may have explained to you, that upon his death, he will being instated here as Ghost King, and join the council of the Underworld as a god. He may have skipped out that if he is bound in marriage before his death, his consort shall also join him. I suppose what I’m trying to say here, is that I think you’d be a fairly decent god of the underworld. I would be most displeased if Nico were to join our numbers alone. Understand?” 

Will had slowly turned completely red through the course of Hades’ speech. “You really think he’d say yes? Um- sir, do you, uh..” and then, because he’d obviously lost his fucking mind, he darted forward and hugged Hades. “I think you’d be a pretty great dad in law.” He mumbled, before jumping back. “Fuck I’m so sorry. Shit. I.. I have no excuse I have no idea why I did that.” 

Hades laughed. “It’s okay Will. Just remember, if you hurt my boy, there is only one thing waiting for you here.” 

Will gulped and nodded. “Absolutely. Understood, I have absolutely no intentions of hurting him. He’s everything to me. I swear it on the Styx.” 

Hades nodded as thunder rumbled. “Thank you. Now I believe Seph has decided on Hercules tonight, so you might want to go control your boy. He can’t stand this film.” 

——

Will proposed pretty fucking quickly after that. They’d travelled back to Camp Half-Blood, and then to Camp Jupiter, where Will had had to gather the fifteen demigods that had declared Nico their unofficial younger brother, and ask for permission. Once he’d got it from Hazel and Reyna, the final two, he’d asked Nico to shadow travel them to Lake Garda, in Italy. 

After the war, they’d all received rewards from the Gods, just like after the Titan War, this time, Apollo had gifted Will with control over light, that would grow over time as he learned to control it, had revealed that Will actually held power of Apollo’s plague aspect as well, and had stopped his healing gifts from damaging his mortal body. Hades’ gift to Nico had essentially been a power boost, along with an offer of regular training, specifically for his less used powers - thermokinesis and the whole soul banishing thing. Now he was fine to shadow travel anyone or anything to anywhere, and he’d be fine. 

Will proposed on a little jetty as the sun set, and once Nico had said yes, and they’d cried a little, they’d lain there, hand in hand, watching the sun go down until dark. And then Nico had sat up suddenly. “Tesoro. We can’t. We won’t be able to be engaged at fifteen.” 

Will grinned. “I got your dad’s blessing though. Watch this.” He pressed down on the gem laid into the ring, and Nico watched in awe as it melted into his skin, leaving a dark shape that moved until it was tucked into the crook of his elbow, solidifying into a kitten. “It’ll move with your moods. Hades said he had Hecate enchant both rings for us.” 

“Mio amore..” Nico threw himself at Will. “I love you so much.” 

“I love you too Death Boy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The different gangs meet :)

It took days for Harry to calm down after the whole lack of contact fiasco and the hearing. He’d been grumbling for days, and then Mrs Weasley had walked into the bedroom this morning and declared that they had an hour to get ready and on the way to King’s Cross, and so they’d better sort their problems out.

They sorted their problems out. 

Lupin informed them on the way to the station that Dumbledore had mentioned two new students in their year. Transfers from America, Dumbledore has said. Harry glanced at Hermione, who, unsurprisingly, looked confused and annoyed about not knowing something. “But Mr Lup-Remus, Hogwarts has never had a transfer programme?” 

“All Dumbledore said was that their Headmaster is a good friend of his, and that the boys have been through a lot, and needed a change of scenery.” Lupin shrugged. “You’ll have to speak to the new students to find out anything else.”

——

They found the two new students hovering in Kings cross between platforms nine and ten, one shorter, with dark hair and eyes, and olive skin. Even from where Harry stood, he could tell the guy had muscle, and there was something about him that said do not fuck with me. The other guy was taller, blond, and really tanned. They seemed to be arguing, and as they got closer Harry could make out what they were saying.

“What if she’s just told us the wrong place?” The shorter one demanded, arms crossed. “It would be absolutely just like her to tell us to come to a platform that doesn’t exist so that when we inevitably have to get to Hogwarts in some other weird way, she can laugh at us for our incompetence.”

“Neeks, your dad told us pretty much everything, and he was there when she told us everything else, and since your dad is trying to make up for everything, there’s no way he would’ve let her mislead us.” 

Neeks leant against blondie. “I guess.” He smiled ruefully. “Just wouldn’t be the first time they’ve messed us about.” 

“Excuse me.” Hermione cut in. “Did you say you were trying to find a platform?” She glanced at their trunks. “Platform nine and three quarters?”

Blondie grinned at her, and the whole station suddenly flooded with light. “Yes exactly, I don’t suppose you know where it is, do you?” 

Hermione nodded. “Follow us.” 

——

They made it on to the train and the two boys followed them to a compartment. “Do you mind if we sit with you?”

Hermione and Ron glanced at Harry. “Actually we have to go to the prefect’s compartment. I’m sure Harry wouldn’t mind sitting with you?” Hermione raised an eyebrow.

Harry deflated. “Yeah of course.”

Blondie smiled. “Thanks. I’m Will Solace, this is my boyfriend, Nico Di Angelo. We’re from Delphi Academy in New York.” 

“Boyfriend?” Harry looked between the two of them. Could they get any more different? 

“Yeah.” Nico snapped. “Got a problem with that?” 

Harry’s eyes widened. “No no of course not. You’re just.. very different?” 

Will laughed. “Nah. Neeks is a little softie really. He just likes to look tough.” Harry doubted that. Nico looked like he’d fight anyone, anywhere, anytime, and win. Just from sheer attitude alone. 

As if to prove Will’s point, though, Nico sat in the corner of the compartment, and pulled a tiny black kitten out of his pocket. “Tesoro have you got the bottle we got for him?” 

——

By the time Hermione and Ron found them, Harry had done away with all suspicions. Will and Nico were absolutely adorable, and funny as well. Will regaled him with tales of Nico being an absolute disaster, such as the time he’d introduced Will to his dad and step mum, and had accidentally broke a wall. Eventually, Nico took over, sharing stories about Will’s flirting. “Yeah, one of our very first conversations involved the fact that he’d covered himself in black to camouflage, in daylight, but left his ridiculously bright hair untouched, and within that very conversation, he grabbed my hands and said, I just delivered a baby, I’m still shaking.” Nico was still cackling, propped against Will when Ron and Hermione burst in, looking pretty pissed off.

The three of them calmed down until they could look at each other without bursting into another round of giggles before turning to them. “How was perfecting?” 

Ron scowled. “You’ll never guess who’s the new Slytherin Prefect?” 

He sighed. “Malfoy?”

Hermione nodded. “And Pansy Parkinson.”

Nico sat up. “Malfoy? Draco Malfoy?”

Ron nodded. “You know the prick?”

Nico frowned. “Draco Malfoy is literally the sweetest child on the face of the planet. I can’t imagine what problem you’d have with him?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Hermione raised an eyebrow. “Draco Malfoy? Blond? Ferret-y? Blood purist? Future death eater?” 

“Well I don’t know what in Hades a death eater is. But Draco Malfoy is like a little brother to me. We’ve known each other for years. I can’t imagine him being a prick as you called him.” He exchanged glances with Will. “Do you happen to know where we could find him?” 

Hermione gave them the directions to where Draco likely was, and the pair thanked her and left. 

“Well that was bloody weird. I can’t believe anybody could see Draco Malfoy as a younger brother. He’s a right wanker.” Ron muttered.

“For once, Ronald, you may actually be right.” 

——

Nico dragged Will from compartment to compartment until they found the son of Zeus. “Draco?”

Draco looked up. “Da-Nico? What are you doing here?” 

Will snorted. “I can’t believe we have a son Neeks. This is all your fault.” 

The pair of them turned bright red, and Draco excused himself from the compartment and moved outside. Will smirked. “Just call him Dad, dragon. It’ll make his whole year.”

Draco glared at him. “I Can’t call you dads when you look my age. Why do you look my age? What are you doing here? Is everyone okay?” Nico pulled Draco into a hug. “Everything is fine dragon. Will and I are on a quest for Hecate to protect Harry Potter. Who I hear you’re a bit of a prick to?” 

This was it. Will was actually going to die, trying not to laugh as his fiancé went full dad mode on the kid they’d all but adopted after finding him, eight, sobbing over the body of his best friend after the Giant War. His grave was going to read William Solace, beloved fiancé, brother, son and accidental father, died laughing because his fiancé is an actual dad.

“Hey Draco.” Will interrupted Nico’s rant about how you can’t just be a dick to someone because they said they wouldn’t be friends with you four years ago. “How come you never mentioned your wizard School was in England? We thought Hecate’s kids were taking you to like, I don’t know, Salem or something like that?”

Draco shrugged. “We did initially start with a school in the US, but then Lou started rambling about how Hogwarts was so much better and so..we ended up in Hogwarts? In...uh..1995?” He shrunk back under their combined glare. “And I forgot to tell you? Because I have distant relatives here who’re looking after me that know I’m a half blood?” 

Will exchanged a glance with Nico, then looked back at Draco. “If we legally adopt you after we’re done here, will you remember to tell us about how you’re in a different continent and time?” 

Draco’s jaw dropped. “Really? You guys..you wanna..really?” 

Nico nodded firmly. “First and fore mostly, it’ll massively piss Zeus off, which will be hilarious. Secondly, you’re actually thirteen pretending to be fifteen just because being a demigod makes you look older, so being thirteen with dads who’re twenty and twenty one is totally fine. Thirdly, I’ve got a friend in the legal system who’ll help us out. Fourthly, Seph really wants grandkids.” He rattled them off, as though he really had any other motivation than that he would move Olympus and Hell for this kid. “Fifthly, it means that I can tell you to sort your goddamn act out and go make up with Harry and his friends, okay?”

Draco nodded meekly, then threw himself at Nico. “Okay dad. Promise.” 

Will wrapped his arms around the pair of them. “Also we’re engaged now, so it’ll totally be easier.”

Draco’s scream could be heard at the other end of the train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco apologises

Harry had no clue what Nico was thinking when he dragged a bashful looking Draco to their compartment. “Now everybody, Draco has some things he’d like to say.”

Draco stepped forward, scuffing his shoes against the floor. “I’m really sorry for how I treated you. I’m not... I’m not actually from here. Lucius and Narcissa aren’t my real parents. We’re related but not closely and they took me in so I could go to school here, and Lucius told me this is how a Malfoy should behave. And I..I didn’t know any better. I should have. I was confused and in a place I didn’t know or understand, but that’s not an excuse. I shouldn’t have let it carry on for so long. I’m really sorry.”

“What in the?” Ron whipped his head between Draco and Nico. “Did you put him up to this?”

Nico shrugged and made a so so motion with his hand. “Kind of. If he really didn’t want to, he wouldn’t have, but I told him to stop being a dick.”

Ron seemed to have entirely stopped functioning, looking at Draco, then Nico and Will, who were leaning against each other and snickering, then back to Harry and Hermione. “I’m sorry, what the hell?”

Will cleared his throat. “Draco apologised for being a dick. Now you can either accept his apology, and gain an ally with possible insight into the bad guys, or you can not accept his apology, not gain an ally, but we’ll make sure that Draco’s friends don’t enact any kind of revenge.”

Nico’s face heavily implied that they should accept Draco’s apology. It was, as usual, Hermione who spoke up. “How about, we accept your apology, and we can work towards friends?”

Draco looked relieved. Harry didn’t think he’d ever seen Draco show that much emotion in his life. “Would you. Um. Would you mind if I sat with you all?”

Nico glared at Harry, as if daring him to say no, then turned to Draco. “It’s fine little dragon. Go get your things.” Draco nodded and walked off quickly.

Ron pulled a face. “Little dragon? Is that some weird nickname? Is he like your third boyfriend or something?”

Will looked positively sick at that. “Draco? Jesus no. He’s like..Nico’s uh..Nico’s dad is like a father figure for Draco. Draco means dragon, and Nico’s dad considers him the youngest of his kids, so we all just call him little dragon.” He shrugged. “I don’t know who came up with it.”

The two curled back up in the corner they’d began the journey in, and Nico pulled his kitten out just as Draco returned with his trunk. “Nico did you get an cat? An animal that doesn’t actively hate you with every fibre of its being?”

Nico glared at him. “Shush you. I’m gonna train him to be a ninja. I’ll teach him to use shurikens and knives, and then you’ll be sorry.”

“I wish I didn’t believe that you could and would train a ninja kitten. I really wish that wasn’t something that was part of my life.” Draco sighed and sat next to Will and Nico, then turned to the trio. “There’s going to be some interference from the ministry this year. They’re sending Dolores Umbridge to teach defence against the dark arts, but it’s mainly so that she can keep an eye on Dumbledore. My living situation isn’t changing until the summer, so I might not be able to appear to have changed, in case she reports to Lucius.” He chewed his lip. “I’m sorry.”

Nico and Will looked up from where they’d been cooing over the kitten. “Nah, I’m gonna get it sorted as soon as we get to Hogwarts.” Nico said, which made absolutely no sense. “The official stuff won’t happen til July, but by tomorrow morning you don’t need to go back there.”

Harry caught Hermione’s eye and pulled a face. What in Merlin’s name did that mean? She shook her head subtly then looked at the others. “I think it’s time we all got changed into our robes, we’re nearly there.”

——

Okay so maybe Nico hadn’t consulted his dad about the whole adopting a thirteen year old demigod son of Zeus, but Hades kept an eye on him and Will, he must’ve known they were planning something similar. After he’d gotten changed into his robes, he scrawled out a quick letter in Greek explaining the situation, and asking Hades to get a lawyer on the case, before he shoved it into the shadows for some poor sod in Hades’ mail department to find, just as Ron came back into the compartment.

“Are you sure about Draco?” He asked quietly. “I know you like the version you see, but I don’t want Harry or Hermione getting hurt because they’re excited about a new friend.”

Nico smiled gently at him. “Draco is like a son-“ Will coughed pointedly. “-to my dad, and my dad is one of the best judges of character I know. If Draco really had this dark side he’s been pressured into showing, my dad would’ve figured it out.”

Ron nodded slowly. “I’ll trust you on this, but he better not hurt my friends.”

The rest of the group came back quickly after that, just as the train came to a stop. They were led to a queue of carriages with thestrals pulling them. A couple started to turn towards him, so he subtly shook his head, then nudged Draco. _“Fuck, I can sense the ghosts from here. Do you think you can get a message to them that they can’t react to me?”_

Draco nodded slowly. _“Yeah if you’ve got paper_?” Nico nodded and held out a sheet. Draco scribbled a note on it, then tapped the centre with his wand, mumbling under his breath. The paper folded itself into an origami swan, then flew off.

Hermione watched closely. “What language was that in? It sounded romantic? Spanish maybe?”

Nico looked up, flushing a bit pink. “Italian. It’s my mother tongue.”

Hermione gasped. “Really? I suppose you do have a bit of an accent. How did you end up in America? What was Italy like?”

“My father moved us there when I was little. I don’t remember much of it. He raised me and my sister to speak the language.” He ducked his head and tucked himself more into Will’s side, who immediately wrapped an arm around him and kissed his hair, sending a glare at Hermione that was clearly intended to stop her talking anymore.

Thankfully, she took the hint and stopped talking.

Then, the castle came into view.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Will get sorted

The castle was just as beautiful as every other time Harry had seen it. Nico and Will looked absolutely astonished though, which was quite funny, Will babbling about how beautiful everything was and about how their friend Annabeth? Would like it. As they pulled up to the castle, a thought occurred. “Hey, do you guys know what houses you’ll be in?” 

Will cocked his head. He looked a bit like a confused puppy, really. “Houses?” 

Draco nodded. “There’s Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Nico will probably be in Gryffindor or Slytherin, and you’ll probably be in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. It controls where you sleep, when your classes are, that kind of thing.” 

“We’ve got our own dorm, actually.” Will replied. “Because of our..conditions.” That didn’t make any bloody sense to Harry, but Draco seemed to grasp what was going on. “Oh of course.” He nodded. “If you guys need any tonics or anything let me know, I’ll get you some.”

“Thanks kiddo.” Nico ruffled Draco’s hair, which was about the funniest thing Harry had ever seen. The tousled look did suit him though, not that Harry would ever admit that to anyone ever. 

——

The first year sorting went pretty tamely, as far as Harry’s experience went. There was a woman from Harry’s ministers hearing sat on the teacher’s table, which Hermione thought might be to do with Draco’s warning earlier, but so far nothing had happened.

Then;

“Di Angelo, Nico”

Nico made his way up to the stage, whispering surrounding him, and Harry even noticed a couple girls fanning themselves. The hat was placed on his head, as always. And then, like something out of a cheap joke shop or a horror film, the hat let out a single scream and then went limp. Nico poked it a few times. “Uh. Is it supposed to do this?” He looked at Dumbledore. “I think it’s fainted.”

Harry glanced at Will, who looked like he was trying his hardest not the burst out laughing, and then across at Draco, who seemed to be in a similar state. Dumbledore called Nico to the front, and after a minute of conversation that Harry couldn’t hear, Nico sauntered down to the Gryffindor table and sat next to Harry, then turned to watch Will.

“Mr Solace, the sorting hat will need some time to recover I believe, so if you would come up here, I will sort you as I did Mr Di Angelo.” Dumbledore announced, and they all watched as Will walked up to where he was sitting. Similarly to Nico, after a few seconds, he made his way down to Gryffindor table, just as the pink monstrosity stood up. 

“Hehem.”

——

Will was always the calm one. When Nico wanted to go gallivanting around the world to give every ghost a piece of his mind about how much paperwork they were causing him and his father, it had been Will who told him that he’d get bored after the fourth ghost cowered in fear and promised to get registered. When Nico had decided he was going to try and attend every pride parade in the US because some stupid legacy of Mars had made a homophobic comment, it had been Will who’d reminded him that he’d have to wear bright colours the whole time and would probably get hit on by a lot of people. 

Sure there had been times, like when a daughter of Ares had started flirting with Nico after watching him train with Percy, where Will had lost his shit a bit, and done things even Nico would’ve thought twice about, but still. Will was the calm one. The collected one. 

But by the Gods would he enjoy throwing a plate at the toad talking to them. For starters, she was wearing all pink and it was probably hurting poor Nico’s eyes, which was entirely unacceptable. Secondly, her voice just made him to want to throw up. Thirdly, she was talking about prohibiting practices and pruning traditions and to Will’s ears, that just made her sound like a meddling bitch, and there was something about fighting in two wars that really made someone really lose their patience with meddling bitches. 

By the time she finished her speech, even Hermione, who so far had seemed like the intelligent one of the trio, was starting to look a little glazed over, although she quickly grabbed the boys attention. 

“You know what this means, don’t you?” They all stared at her blankly. “The Ministry is interfering with Hogwarts.” 

——

McGonagall found them outside the Great Hall. “Mr Solace, Mr Di Angelo, with me please.” She waited a moment for them to make their way over, then started walking. “Professor Dumbledore has informed myself and professor Snape of your true heritage. Make no mistake, Professor Snape will not act favourably just because you cannot read or write in English, and you will be expected to work just as hard as our other students, but we will do our best to assist with anything you need for your quest. Your dormitory and wands are behind the painting. Professor Dumbledore says the password is your mentor’s name. I hope that means something to you.” She nodded firmly at them, then walked off.

Nico made a face at Will, then turned to the painting. “Chiron.” He murmured. The painting swung open, revealing a cozy living room with a roaring fireplace. He walked in, looking around. “Do you remember how to remove the Mist like Hecate placed on us?” He looked at Will. “Because I’m sorry, Tesoro, but we’re not doing anything whilst we look fifteen, and I wasn’t listening.”

Will laughed and nodded. “She said it’s linked to the rings, well, tattoos currently I guess.” He pressed down on the kitten tucked in the crook of his elbow, growing a few inches and growing visibly older as the tattoo changed back to a ring. Nico nodded and did the same, before looping his arms around Will’s neck loosely. “‘Aren’t you gonna take me to bed, sunshine?”’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Umbridge :))

Harry dragged Ron and Hermione to a secluded corner as soon as they reached the common room. “So what do you think? Of the new kids?”

Hermione frowned. “I can’t believe they know Draco. It all seems rather unlikely doesn’t it? The ministry interferes in Hogwarts, and suddenly there are two new students who consider Draco a brother, and Draco is now feeding us information? Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that we knew and weren’t completely shocked. I just think it’s suspicious, that’s all.”

Ron nodded. “Nico trusts him, and he and Will seem like decent blokes. I know Malfoy’s a git, and I’ll punch him the second he turns on us, but seems like a bloody good idea to have someone who can feed us that kind of information.”

Hermione raised her eyebrow. “And when did you become a tactical genius, Ronald?”

Ron blushed. “I spoke to Nico and Will, is all. After you guys left to get changed. Nico swears that he trusts him.”

Harry nodded slowly. “I just don’t understand why they’re a bit weird. Did you notice how they kept stuttering over things? I could’ve sworn Nico was going to call Draco _his_ son, instead of his father’s.”

“I noticed that too.” Hermione commented. “And what was that thing he’s going to get sorted for Draco so that he doesn’t have to live with Lucius and Narcissa?”

Ron roller his eyes. “Why don’t we just ask them about it? Either they’ll tell us, and we’ll have an answer, or they won’t, and we can do some digging. Either way, I’m shattered.”

Harry looked at him. “I guess. We’ll talk about it more in the morning?”

They both nodded, and Ron stood up. “Right then, I’m going to bed. It’s probably the only good night I’m gonna get knowing you two.”

——

Nico shadowtravelled them both to just outside Dumbledore’s office just before breakfast. One of his newest abilities, thanks to his gifts from Hades, was to lock onto a soul signature, and use that to guide his travelling instead of just locations. Just as they appeared out of the shadows, Dumbledore emerged. “Mr Solace? Mr Di Angelo?”

They nodded, and after a moment of glancing at each other, Will stepped forwards, still in his real age. “Sir, we were wondering if Mr Malfoy might have free access to our dorm, and some way to get there at night without getting into trouble. See, he’s like a son to us, and it’d be really comforting, considering our circumstances, if we could see him more than just in class? We’d usually IM at least once a week, but that seems a bit pointless given we’re in the same building.” Dumbledore nodded after a second’s consideration.

“Let Mr Malfoy know that the Grindylow portrait in his dormitory shall open to a passage to your common room, should he give it the password rhubarb and custard. Have a good day, gentlemen.” Will beamed.

“Thank you, sir.”

——

Nico and Will were barely on time for breakfast, and when they got there, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were waiting for them. “Did you all sleep well?” Will asked brightly, grabbing cereal.

“We’ve got some questions.” Ron said bluntly, ignoring Will’s question. He nodded for Hermione to take over. “Some of the things you’ve said just don’t add up. You seemed to want to refer to Draco as _your_ son, not your fathers, and you said you were going to sort out a way for Draco to not have to live with his parents, and, and-“

Nico cut her off. “We’ll explain everything tonight, okay? In private. After dinner, you and Draco can come to our dorm, and we’ll explain everything. I swear it.” Will nodded slowly. “We just have to contact our school and see what we can tell you. The Statute of Secrecy is really heavily enforced in America, and there are some things the ministry over there like to keep even from other magical communities.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes, but before she could say anything, their time tables were delivered, and Harry immediately groaned. “I’ve got Umbridge first thing.”

The others nodded. “We all do, I think.” Hermione said, checking everyone’s timetable to be sure. Nico pouted. “But she wears so much pink.” He whined. The others laughed, Will ruffling his hair. “Poor baby. How’re you gonna concentrate when that bitch is up there blindin’ ya, huh?”

“Exactly!” Nico slumped against him dramatically. “Would it kill her to wear a little black? I’d take grey even. The pink is gonna kill me.”

——

Their first lesson was, as Will expected, a complete disaster. It all started with the toad telling them to put their wands away and start reading. Then, obviously Hermione put her hand up to ask about the lack of defensive spell use, which sparked a whole fucking argument about whether or not Voldemort was back, whilst Nico visibly vibrated with the extreme need to yell at Umbridge, until he eventually stood up, slamming his hands down on the table. “Di immortals, lady! Are you actually going to look at the guy who you all lauded as a hero literally since he was only one years old, and then not believe him the second he says something that even slightly goes against the lovely little daydream you’ve cooked up? Are you serious?” He kept ranting in Italian for a good minute before Umbridge gathered herself enough to speak.

“Enough, Mr Di Angelo!” Oh shit the toad was going red. “I will tell you all one more time. He who must not be named has not returned. This is a lie, and an evil one at that. Yourself and Mr Potter have a detention with me every night until I deem you to have both learned your lesson. Take these to Professor McGonagall please.” She shoved pink slips at them, then waited for them to leave before turning to everyone else. “Now class. If you could please return to the page you were on before Miss Granger so rudely caused an interruption.”

Will made eye contact with Hermione and Ron, shaking his head before staring blankly at the book in front of him for the remainder of the lesson.

——

Harry led Nico to McGonagall’s office. Di Angelo was clearly fuming, cheeks red and eyes blazing, but he was ranting under his breath in languages Harry didn’t speak a word of, although he was sure there was more than one. “Nico you might want to shut up now. McGonagall may be about to kill us.”

Nico nodded and collected himself. “Any last words, Mr Potter?”

Harry laughed. “None at all, what about you, Mr Di Angelo.”

Nico grinned wickedly. “In the next life, as in this one, may I be just as funny, just as awesome, and most importantly, just as gay.”

Harry choked, before bursting out laughing, slapping his thigh. “Can I get a do over? Please I want a do over.”

Just as Nico opened his mouth to reply, McGonagall called them in. “Mr Potter, Mr Di Angelo. Inside please.”

They glanced at each other then followed her inside, handing her the notes. She looked up after reading them. “Is it true that you told Professor Umbridge that he who must not be named has returned?”

“Yes Professor.” Harry mumbled.

“And that Cedric Diggory was murdered?”

“Yes Professor.”

“And that you could be attacked any minute?”

“Yes Professor.”

“And Mr Di Angelo. Is it true that you referred to the ministry’s stance on the return of Voldemort, a lovely little daydream?”

Nico flushed faintly. “Yes Professor.”

“And that you ranted for a full two minutes at her in Italian?”

“Yes Professor.”

McGonagall sighed and leant back in her chair. “Have a biscuit, the both of you.”

They blinked at her, but sat down and took one each quickly when she raised an eyebrow. “You two have detention every night with her indefinitely. You are both going to attend, and you’re going to be respectful towards Professor Umbridge from this point on. Are we in agreement?”

They both nodded sheepishly. “Yes Professor.”

“Right. Off you go. If you two cause anymore trouble with her, I will have no choice but to take more serious actions.”

They nodded quickly before leaving.

——

That night, Harry and Nico made their way to Umbridge’s office. The rest of the day had passed much better than the first lesson, and Draco’s note to the ghosts seemed to have worked, even Binn’s only stuttered for a moment before carrying on with his lesson.

“What do you think she’ll make us do?” Nico asked.

Harry shrugged. “I’ve had to clean trophy rooms, search the forbidden forest, all sorts of things for detentions. I have no idea what she’ll make us do.”

“You’ve had to do what? Dios mio, I thought our punishments were bad.”

They finally reached Umbridge’s office and sat down at her request once inside. “Now boys. You’re going to write some lines for me. I must not tell lies for Mr Potter, and I must not insult that which I do not understand for Mr Di Angelo. I think until six pm, or until I deem the message to have sunk in.”

They nodded and reached for quills. “No no. You won’t be using your own quills. These will suffice, I think.” Umbridge handed them each a quill. “Start writing then.”

Harry started writing slowly, wincing as the back of his leg hand started scratching. After more lines, the itch became a sort of paper cut like sensation, and when he looked at Nico, he was rubbing the back of his left hand too. Eventually, he stopped resisting the urge, and looked at his left hand to see I must not tell lines scratched into it,

“Problem, Mr Potter?”

Harry scowled at her. “No. Everything’s fine, Professor.”

As soon as the door was closed behind them at six o clock, Nico was cursing a blue streak in more languages even than the rant about the lesson that morning. He didn’t stop ranting until he was directing Harry down a corridor he’d never seen before.

“Wait, Nico, where are we?”

Nico cocked his head. “Didn’t you want to know everything? I imagine Will has already gathered everyone else here. This is where our dorm is.” He motioned for Harry to step back, then murmured something too quiet for him to hear. The painting swung back to reveal a cozy living room, with Will, Hermione, Ron, and Draco all sat inside.

Nico walked straight in and threw himself at Will, holding his bleeding hand out immediately. As the rest of them watched in awe, Will pressed a kiss to it and right in front of everyone, Nico’s hand glowed gold, before the blood, the writing, everything disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Questions and Answers y’all

“How did you do that?” Ron asked quickly, “I’ve never seen magic like that.” 

Will sighed and adjusted Nico in his lap. “It’s a long story. And you have to swear that you won’t tell anyone. Not because we don’t want the attention or anything, but because every person that knows is a potential weakness that could lead to this school’s endangerment. Understood?” 

The trio nodded slowly. “We promise.” Hermione said after a moment.

Will scrubbed a hand over his face. “Right. Technically this starts in 1932. That’s when Neeks here was born.” 

“What?” Harry sat up sharply. “But you look fifteen.” 

Hermione cocked her head. “Is it a glamour?” 

Nico waved his hand. “Kind of? There’s a lot of weird shit going on. I was born in 1932, in Italy. Then, because of the war we moved to America. Then my mama was killed by my uncle in attempt to kill me and my sister. Then my dad stuck us in this hotel where you don’t age. Here’s where it gets weird.” He sighed dramatically and leant against Will. “Never mind, we’re gonna start somewhere else. What do you know about the Greek and Roman Gods?”

Hermione frowned. “Zeus, Poseidon, that kind of thing?” Will and Nico nodded. “Yeah. Well. They exist.” 

After a full five minutes of the trio yelling about how they couldn’t possibly, Draco yawned and stood up. “Guys. Wizards literally point wooden sticks at things, and they can do just about anything. Why couldn’t gods and goddesses exist?” 

They paused, and Nico nodded his thanks to Draco. “Right. So we’re the children of the gods. Demigods. We’re kind of from the future though?” He winced. “Basically, we fought in the second Titan war when I was eleven or twelve, and the second Giant War when we were fourteen. And this all happens in about ten years. It’s a lot weird. So I’m twenty, Will is twenty one, Draco is thirteen.” 

More goddamn yelling. They gave them a minute to calm down. “Right. So we thought that Draco was going to a school in America in our time, but I guess Hecate got one of her kids to take him here to keep an eye on you. But since he’s an awkward disaster.” He glared at Draco. “We got sent here officially to speed this whole war thing up because Hecate loses a lot of people in the war. Right. Any questions?” Will rolled his eyes as all three of them started talking. “One at a time?” 

“Who’re your parents?” Hermione asked immediately. “And can you prove any of it?” 

They nodded. “I’m a son of Apollo.” Will replied. “That’s why Nico’s hand glowed and healed when I kissed it. I’m a healer.” 

“I’m the son of Hades.” Nico waved lazily and the shadows in the room started moving.

Draco smiled awkwardly and jumped into the air, and stayed there. “I’m a son of Zeus.” 

The three watched in awe for a moment. “How come you guys have magic?” 

Draco answered first. “My mum is a witch. Lucius’s second cousin or something. I started going to Salem with one of Hecate’s daughters, but then I lightly electrocuted something so Lou brought me here. I didn’t really know it was the past because tech doesn’t work with magic anyways.” 

“Draco you fucking electrocuted something?” Nico and Will sat up properly. 

“Wait wait wait.” Ron looked between them. “Are you Draco’s parents? Because you keep saying he’s like a son to your dad, Nico, but you’ve got very strong dad vibes going on here.” 

“This is a bit weird too.” Nico sighed and slumped back against Will. “Right. So...” Ron glared at him and he nodded. “So we found him after the Giant War. He was nine and crying over his dead best friend. I’m a sucker for kids losing people they love, and Will is just a sucker. We started looking after him because his brother and sister aren’t around our place much, and he grew on us.” He smiled fondly at Draco. “Like fungus. So we’re gonna adopt him and stuff because demigods don’t tend to live for very long, and we want him to have a proper family whilst everyone’s alive.”

“Plus.” Will added. “Since Nico’s the most favourite son of Hades ever, when he dies he’ll become a god of the underworld. Any legal family he has when he does that’s been ratified by Hades will also join the underworld council when they die. Which is why we’re,” he motioned between him and Nico. “Getting married, and why we’re adopting Draco.” 

“You’re engaged? Okay if you’re actually older can we see? This is quite weird when you look our age.” Hermione asked cautiously. Harry shook his head. “Wait before that, one second. You’re all destined to become gods?” 

Nico whined dramatically. “Yeah pretty much. I’ll be the god of ghosts, I think. Will will probably be something to do with healing but I don’t know. We have no idea what Draco will be because he isn’t fully realised in his powers. He’ll specialise at some point. For example his sister can fully control lightning, but his brother can fly and cause storms. They can both do what the other can do, but not as well. Some of Will’s siblings are the incredible musicians and archers, and some can control light, and my half sister can control gems and the earth.” Harry nodded slowly. “Thanks, I think?”

They both stood up, pressing their tattoos, and growing back to their real ages. “Nico’s still a midget.” Will teased, much to Nico’s chagrin.

The trio’s jaws had all dropped, although Draco looked a bit relieved. “Thank the Gods,” he murmured, then held his hands up defensively when Hermione and Ron looked at him funny. “Imagine if your parents suddenly looked only two years older than you.” He challenged. “Sure they’re not loads older than me normally, but thirteen to twenty is a bit different to thirteen to fifteen, okay?” 

They relaxed, until Hermione looked at Nico and Will sharply. “Did you two say you’d fought in two wars?!” She asked shrilly. 

Will nodded. “Yeah. We’re not going into detail though. We lost a lot of people and this chat here has been draining enough.” 

Nico shifted until he was fully curled up in Will’s lap. “Look, the long and short of it is, gods exist, time travel exists, we’re involved with both, there was a couple wars because the gods are assholes and so are their parents and grandparents,” he paused as thunder rumbled loudly. “Hecate made you guys, she doesn’t want you all to die, hence we’re here. Does that make any sense?” 

Ron shook his head. “Not in the slightest made, but we’re used to things that don’t make sense. You seem cool enough, and Draco being a dramatic thirteen year old makes far too much sense, so we’ll go with it.” 

Hermione and Harry nodded. “We might have more questions.” Hermione warned. Nico shrugged. “I don’t think you’ll ever be able to ask more questions than I did when I found out. Just as long as they’re not tonight, and you don’t tell anyone. Now shoo.” He motioned for them to leave.

“Oh, wait, Harry.” Will called out as they left. “Gimme your hand.” Harry held his left hand out tentatively. “Please don’t kiss it.” He joked. “I don’t fancy my chances against Nico.” 

Will laughed. “Don’t worry I wasn’t planning on it.” He pressed two fingers against the words, and as with Nico, they started glowing, and the cuts vanished. “Right, go. I don’t think you wanna be here for what’s about to happen.” He winked and laughed as the four of them scrambled to leave. 

Nico looked up at Will. “Even Percy explained it better than we did.” He complained. “Stupid Hecate not giving us a script.”

Will chucked and kissed his forehead. “Percy didn’t have to explain time travel, two wars, or a son. I’d say we did okay considering. Besides eventually Hermione will’ve asked so many questions that she’ll get it and then she can explain it for us.” 

“Thank fuck we didn’t get three Harry’s.” Nico murmured sleepily. “Can you imagine trying to explain this to three people who don’t even notice the extreme homoerotic tension with their rival? Impossible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginnings of the DA

The trio made their way to the Gryffindor common rooms slowly, glancing at each other occasionally as if to confirm that everything they’d just heard was real. 

“It makes sense when you think about it.” Hermione said abruptly. “Gods and goddesses. And the whole part with Draco too I suppose.” 

“Hermione.” Ron started. “In what way do gods and goddesses make sense?” 

She rolled her eyes. “Honestly Ronald. Have you never questioned where magic comes from? Why a select group of people can wave wooden sticks and have absolutely incredible things happen?” 

He flushed sheepishly and motioned for her to carry on. “I’ll have to go to the library to do some research, but deities as old as time that can interact with but not interfere with modern affairs, which is what I’ve gathered from the fact that they have children but Hecate has had to send Nico and Will, well I just think it explains a lot of things that haven’t previously been understood.” 

“Bloody hell ‘mione.” Ron muttered. “I don’t know how you do it.” 

She flashed a small, pleased smile at him. “So what do you two think?” 

Harry shrugged. “If they can help end prevent a war, I’m all for it. Plus it’s nice to see Draco so..happy?” He blushed profusely when they both stared at him.

“Harry your life for the past four years has consisted of you and Malfoy at each other’s throats. Now one apology and meeting his dads had gotten you calling him Draco and saying it’s nice when he’s happy?” Ron raised an eyebrow.

Harry glared at him. “Well he’s never seemed very happy before, has he? Now his hair isn’t slicked and he’s smiling more. I’m allowed to think it’s nice aren’t I?” 

Hermione laughed. “Merlin’s beard you have no idea do you?” Harry stared at her blankly. “Harry, you and Draco have been obsessed with each other for four years. Now suddenly, you meet two gay men, one blond and one with dark hair and a darker sense of humour, who happen to encourage Draco to relax and apologise, and that makes you realise that you like seeing Draco with his hair messy and happy?” 

“‘Mione I don’t know what you think any of that stuff about Nico and Will has to do with this. Draco’s just.. sweet now.” 

Ron snorted. “Hermione you don’t think..” He made eye contact with her, then glanced back at Harry, then started cackling when she nodded. 

“Mate, do you need to tell us anything? About how you’re deeply in love with Malfoy?”

Harry recoiled. “What are you on about Ron? I think I’d know if I was in love with Malfoy. I’m not as oblivious as you two morons.” 

They reached the tower, Ron and Hermione awkwardly looking at each other and then away. Harry sighed. “I’m going to bed to try and digest some of this. You two should talk about the fact that you apparently didn’t know you liked each other.” He nodded firmly at both of them then went upstairs.

Ron looked at Hermione carefully. “Do you..?”

Hermione blushed and nodded. “What about you?” 

He nodded in return. “Wanna..” he motioned to the sofa by the fire. “I’d like that very much Ronald.” She led him over and sat down, leaning against him. “Harry definitely fancies Malfoy doesn’t he?”

Ron laughed and wrapped an arm around her. “Even I can tell he fancies him. Malfoy definitely likes him back too.” 

She nodded and yawned, fisting a hand in his shirt sleepily. “We’ll talk to Nico and Will about it tomorrow. They ought to be able to help.” Ron pressed a kiss against her hair hesitantly. “You should go to sleep.” He said quietly. “You’ll want to do loads of research tomorrow.” 

——

The next few weeks flew by. Umbridge was as much of a bitch as ever, Nico had started charming his desk so it looked like he was reading when actually he was playing with Nightmare (no, Will does not approve of Nico naming his cat Nightmare), Draco slowly settled in with the five of them, starting to make jokes and laugh freely, and if he blushed every time he looked at Harry, everyone was kind enough to ignore it. 

After the eighth time Harry and Nico came back from detention with their hands bleeding, however, Will lost it. “I’m sorry but I’m not just gonna stand her and watch whilst she makes you two carve your hands to bits so she can get some kind of satanic pleasure from watching two fifteen year olds suffer!” He ranted, southern accent thickening until his vowels were stretched and only the necessary consonants were in use. “She ain’t teaching us nothin either way, and if y’all have to swallow your damn pride to get out of her lessons and those godsdamned detentions then you should damnwell do it, okay?” 

Nico had slowly gone red through the duration of his rant, shifting uncomfortably and avoiding eye contact with everyone. 

Hermione cleared her throat. “I’m going to say this quickly because I think Nico would like to reacquaint himself with parts of your anatomy that I have no desire to see, Will.” Draco made a choked noise and glared reproachfully at the two of them. “I’ve been thinking about Umbridge and how little she’s been teaching us, and I’ve had an idea. I think we should start a club. I think Harry, and you Nico, should teach us to defend ourselves. Will you should teach us some minor healing stuff. Things we can do ourselves.”

Harry scoffed. “And who, exactly, is going to want to learn from me? I didn’t do any of the things I did by myself.” 

“No one does amazing things alone. That’s why the Romans have legions, and why the Greeks run three man quests.” Nico rolled his eyes. “I tried to do everything by myself, and I got one of my closest friends imprisoned and then almost killed, and then I almost died like ten times, until people who loved me stepped in. It’s not impressive that you did them alone, it’s impressive that you did them at all.” 

Hermione grinned at him. “Exactly. Besides you’ve still learned more defensive spells than the rest of us. Things we’ve had no reason to learn yet, but you have. And Nico can teach us weaponry because it seems rather unlikely that we’re always going to be armed. Just..” she gave Harry a look. “Think about it, okay?” 

Draco cleared his throat. “I know some dark magic counter curses.” He made a pained face when Hermione turned to him quizzically. “Don’t ask. Let’s just say it was learned out of necessity, okay?” 

The room instantly grew darker as Nico stood up. “You had to learn counter curses to dark magic by necessity?” 

The trio huddled together, but Draco only rolled his eyes. “I was living with followers of Voldemort, who had to pretend I was their son. Almost every pure blood Slytherin heir can defend themselves against a variety of dark spells.”

“I swear to fucking god I’m never letting you go anywhere by yourself ever again.” Nico muttered angrily, conjuring a chair out of shadows and slumping in it, pulling Draco’s head into his lap carefully. “I cannot believe you didn’t tell us that.” He kept mumbling under his breath threateningly whilst carding his fingers through Draco’s hair.

“Anyway.” Will started brightly. “I think it’s a brilliant idea Hermione.” She smiled at him proudly. “We’ve got a trip to Hogsmeade coming up, haven’t we?” Hermione and Ron nodded, Harry distracted with watching Nico and Draco. “Why don’t we organise a meeting of sorts then? People can sign up, y’all can pitch the sale to everyone? I just want to clarify this though. Just because we’re training them doesn’t mean we’re going to tell them about ourselves. When we asked Nico’s dad and Hecate, the only people we got permission to talk to about was you three. We’re going to say we go to a school that specialises in combat magic and physical training because it’s a school that feeds heavily into the duelling industry, okay?” 

Hermione smiled. “I never thought about how to explain that, but that would work.” She leaned into Ron shyly. “What about hosting it? Where could we train?” 

“We’ve got a training room here.” Nico spoke up. “It wouldn’t do for spell training or anything, you’d have to find somewhere else, but it’s properly kitted out for physical combat, and there’s an entrance to it that’s separate from this one.” He motioned to the door. “And since it’s linked to here, Will will have access to all his healing things in case someone gets hurt.” 

“Then it’s settled?” Hermione had repositioned herself time be more tucked into Ron’s side after he’d rested his head on hers. “We’ll do segments, Harry can do defensive spells, Will, healing magic, Nico, physics combat, and Draco can do counter curses and such. Me and Ron will run it, make sure nobody tells, that everyone is there on time, that kind of thing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Will get angry because Wizards are a wee bit stupid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beware, there be long ass paragraphs ahead

It took a while for everyone to file into the Hog’s Head, and even longer for everyone to stop talking. Once Nico had managed to glare everyone into shutting up, Hermione stepped forward to address everyone. 

“I assume you’re all here today for the same reasons we are. Because for one, we’re not learning anything useful and you’d actually like to pass your OWLs, and for two, you believe that dangerous times are ahead, and you’d like to actually do something about it. I’m not the expert here. My suggestion is for four leaders, Harry, Draco, Nico, and Will.” 

She waited a moment for everyone to let that sink in. “We’ll go through questions in a moment, but I’ll explain the reasoning. Harry has been through more than most of us could imagine, and he’s had to use defensive magic that we’ve not been taught to survive it. He’s used spells like the Patronus charm, that could be life saving, and that we wouldn’t get a chance to fully practice otherwise. Nico is a master at physical combat, weaponry, hand to hand the likes, but I’ll let him explain why that’s useful. Will is an incredible healer, I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and I think we could all benefit from knowing what to do when things have already gone wrong, when our best hope isn’t to fight, but to heal. And Draco knows counter curses and jinxes to spells that we would never consider, or necessarily even know about. I know you’ve had difficulties with him in the past, but it’s time to look past that, because he’s grown up around spells that could sentence you to a fate worse than death, and he knows how to counter them.” She moved back, and motioned for the four of them to take her place. 

Harry shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t really know why you’d want me to teach you anything. But if that’s what you want then I’d be happy to do it.” 

Nico didn’t move from where he was leaning against Will. “If you sign up, which you should because shit’s about to go down, then you better be prepared to actually gain some muscle. We’re talking workouts, three foot metal swords, no calorie deficits. Everything. You will get hurt, you will experience more consistent pain than you likely ever have, and you will wish you never agreed to it. But by the end of it you won’t be totally useless if someone snaps your wand, and that’s what we’re going for here.” 

Will nodded seriously. “It’s kind of shocking that none of you have any first aid training. Even Nico can do some basic stitches, splint a broken bone, that kind of thing, and he’s a reckless idiot. You guys have spells for everything and that’s fine, but some of you are going to panic at the first sight of blood, and every spell you’ve ever learned is going to leave your mind, and the only thing you’ll have left is muscle memory. I can and have dealt with full combat injuries, and low mania in the same patient without using magic, but I doubt a single one of you could sort a sprained ankle.” 

Draco shuffled forward until everyone could see him. “Dark magic isn’t what you think it is, necessarily. Every death eater I’ve ever met, and it’s a lot, I grew up in a house with them, can cast every curse and hex I can think of non verbally. And if you don’t know what spell it is until you’re writhing on the floor in pain, counter spells are useless. Sometimes, somebody is going to cast a cruciatus when your back is turned and they’re not going to say it aloud. At that point you don’t need to know the counter curse, you need to be able to survive it. And I hate to say it but you need to be able to cast one back. The only people in this room who I reckon could summon the hatred needed to cast one right now, are me and Nico. I know you all want to be the good guys. I know you have a level you don’t want to stoop to. But I’d rather make torturers out of you than murderers, and if your back is against the wall and they’ve got what it takes to kill you, an unforgivable curse might be the best chance you’ve got.” 

Hermione stood back up. “Any questions?” Everyone’s hands rose. 

“Are you really going to get us to cast cruciatus on each other?” 

Draco’s eyes widened. “Gods no. Nico is gonna do some mildly illegal magic and summon some skeletons for us. He’ll be able to relay how successful the curse is.” 

“How do we know Draco isn’t gonna turn on us?” 

Nico glared darkly. “How many of you have been consistently nice to, and faithful in Harry? Because I’m pretty sure it’s one or two. But you’re still here today, despite the things that have made you doubt or resent him, so extend the same courtesy to Draco.” 

“How are we going to know where and when the meetings are?”

Here Ron spoke up. “Me and my brothers used to use these enchanted coins to pass messages that we didn’t want our mum or dad to know about. I reckon we could apply the same kind of thing. The coin will grow warm when we send the message, and we’ll put the time and room on it.” 

“You know who..he’s back, isn’t he?” Seamus asked carefully. 

Harry sighed and nodded. “He is. I didn’t ask for any of this, and if I could go back and make none of this happen and just be a normal kid I would. I wouldn’t lie about Voldemort being back.”

Nico sat up properly, keeping his fingers linked with Will’s. “Wait. People think that Harry is making this up for attention? He accidentally enters a competition that has resulted in people dying, against a bunch of people three years older than him, almost dies fighting a dragon, then almost dies in the fucking lake, then enters the ultimate death maze, bar the Labyrinth, disappears for a while, then exits holding the corpse of his dead friend, bleeding, and says Voldemort is back, and you guys decide to ignore all the evidence, and decide that, what?” He scrubbed a hand over his face in exasperation, and downed half his glass of butterbeer, despite the questionable cleanliness of the glass. 

“You come to the conclusion that a fourteen year old idiot that literally cannot process his own emotions managed to cheat a magical artefact, and an age line drawn by the dude you all worship, and then, despite the fact that he flew away from the dragon instead of killing it, and the fact that he saved an extra person in the lake, you reckon he murdered his friend, or watched him die by accident, even though he was a perfectly healthy seventeen year old, and then you think he lied about the return of the guy who killed his parents for popularity?!” The room grew darker and colder as Nico got angrier, only Will’s arm wrapping around his waist stopping anything worse from happening.

Everyone went silent. “Di immortals.” Will murmured under his breath before addressing the room. “Okay, so let’s start with a quick lesson. People who are abused and lied to and who suffer as much as Harry have, who are forced into the position Harry has been forced into, either end up as heroes or villains. I know people who have gone both ways, and I can promise you, Harry is definitely not a villain. So get your heads out of your asses, and try to generate an independent thought that isn’t based on that gods be damned newspaper.” 

Harry coughed, cheeks flaming a little bit. “Right, now you’ve all been thoroughly threatened. Hermione wants you to sign this piece of parchment to indicate your interest. I’ve got another sheet, for anyone to write down any specific spells or things you want to learn from the four of us, or if you’ve got something you think would be useful for you to teach.” 

Every single person in the room signed their name. Hermione beamed as the last couple people left. “Well I think that went rather well.” 

Draco smiled nervously. “Butterbeer at the three broomsticks?” 

Everyone nodded, except Nico, who made a dramatic sound. “I can’t believe the first time I came to a country where I’m legal drinking age whilst I’ve actually got time to drink, I look fifteen.” 

Will cooed. “How are you gonna cope huh? Not able to drink away your sorrows like all the other angsty teenagers.” 

Nico scowled as the others laughed. “I will shadow travel to a distillery and steal vodka Solace. Just you watch me.”

“Nah, sunshine. You’re a sappy drunk, you’d come running right back to me, and I’d be able to remove it from your system.” 

“Stupid Percy having a stupid party with stupid alcohol and stupid Apollo giving you stupid healing powers.” Nico mumbled as they headed towards the Three Broomsticks, the others still laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minor drinking, Nico and Will realise they’ve gained children, and the first DA meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t come for me, Harry Potter is set in Scotland, as a Brit I can confirm that a fair few of us started drinking a while before 15

The five spent the next week planning the first meeting.

Well.

Hermione and Will spent the next week planning the first meeting. Harry, Nico, Ron, and Draco spent the next week occasionally tossing in ideas but mostly bitching about Umbridge and doing random things, like the night before the meeting, when Nico shadow travelled to Hogsmeade as his twenty year old self, and returned with a bottle of fire whiskey, that he’d bought legally, as he assured Hermione upon his return.

By the end of the evening they were all pleasantly buzzed, all sprawled on the bed which Hermione had expanded, Nico between Will’s legs and Hermione tucked under Ron’s arms. Even Harry and Draco had stopped blushing awkwardly and had just learnt against each other. Nightmare was sat on Nico’s chest, purring far louder than such a small cat had any right to.

“Right.” Nico stated, accent much thicker now that he’d been drinking a little. “The plan for the meeting; Harry will start. He’ll teach spells, they pair off. All good fun. Then, Draco. I will pretend to summon the skeletons with my wand, and he will teach them curses or counter curses, whatever he feels up to. Then I will beat everyone up and teach them to do the same. Then Will will show them how to not die.”

They all cheered in agreement, and Ron poured everyone a final double of firewhiskey. “Down with Umbridge!” He toasted, and they all laughed and clinked glasses, before downing them as one.

“Right now to bed with y’all.” Will made a lazy shooing motion. “We got lessons to teach tomorrow and I won’t have y’all yawnin and tryna sleep through the whole thing. I’ll cure any hangovers I need to in the morning.”

Draco giggled and nodded. “Night mum.” He joked, Harry, Ron and Hermione chorusing it as well.

Nico cackled. “ _Goodnight my ducklings_.”

“Night dad.” They replied, laughing as they stumbled out through the passageways to their dorms.

“Baby,” Will started slowly, once they’d gone.

“Sì, mio amore?” Nico blinked lazily at him.

“I think we mighta just gained three more kids.”

“Eh. I like them.” He shrugged. “They have magic. We get Hecate to extra bless them when we’re done, we can take them to New Rome once we’re done.”

Will chuckled and kissed his forehead. “We’ll talk ‘bout it later, m’kay darlin? We don’t know if your old man would be okay with you adding three more to your little group to take to the underworld.”

Nico frowned. “Harry would be an excellent god of unwilling heros, Ron would a fantastic god of platonic jealously and overlooked children, and Hermione would make an awesome goddess of overcoming obstacles. No?”

“You’ve already been plannin’ haven’t you?” He smiled and turned the lights off. “We’ll have a chat with your dad okay?”

“Okay. Night, mio caro.”

“Night, gorgeous.”

——

The next morning, once Will had made sure nobody felt any worse for wear, Ron enchanted the coins they’d handed out to those on the list. They’d had to do a lot of coordinating around other people, but nobody had quidditch practice that evening, and there were no clubs that people weren’t willing to miss.

They made their way to Potions, but were stopped by Draco running up to them, cheeks flushed and eyes bright with anger. “They’ve made Umbridge High Inquisitor. She’s disbanded all clubs and meetings. We have to get permission to play bloody quidditch.”

Nico held a hand up. “Woah woah. Slow down. What’s a high inquisitor? Who made Umbridge one? How has she banned clubs?”

Draco sighed. “The minister of magic? Cornelius Fudge? He’s made her High Inquisitor. She’s putting out Educational Decrees, and the first one is that every club and meeting is disbanded until they’ve got permission from her to reform. The Slytherin team has only just got permission, and I think Angelina Johnson is in her office right now arguing about Gryffindor.”

Harry and Ron, unsurprisingly, started yelling about how that was unfair and she couldn’t do that and “you can’t cancel quidditch.”

After a few minutes of the boys winding themselves up over how unfair it was, Will motioned for them all to stop talking. “Angelina Johnson is obviously talking to Umbridge now, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Okay? Now unless any of you want your heads cut off by Snape, I suggest we get moving.”

Ron put up a token protest, but they all relented quickly and they reached the dungeons just in time.

Will liked potions, probably because quite a few of them were medicinally inclined, and so he had a natural talent with them, but also there was something about sitting in a dark room lit by candles whilst pouring random things into a cauldron whilst it released coloured smoke and smells and sparks that satisfied some childish part of him deep down. Which was essentially to say that Nico thought it was absolutely the coolest thing ever, and despite being only marginally better at it than Ron and Harry, he had so much enthusiasm that Snape had agreed to get him a copy of the textbook in Italian, in the hopes it would improve his abilities.

Even Harry and Ron had started to enjoy the lessons more, because clearly having someone enthusiastic and happy to ask questions was all Snape needed to go from a borderline abuse creepy dick to a creepy dick, and they found it rather refreshing.

As they walked in that morning, Snape presented Nico with a textbook. It looked a little worse for wear, but as Nico flipped through, his face lit up and he grinned at Snape. “Thank you.” He breathed, before turning to Will, rambling about how today he was one hundred percent going to get whatever potion they did right because wow this sure made sense now that he could tell what was going on instead of attempting to copy everything Will did.

God Percy would’ve loved to this side of Nico again. So many people seemed to be convinced that Nico was just some cold, abrasive loner who was driven because it suited him, and even Jason had only managed to see past that after the whole deal with Cupid. Admittedly, the newer campers, the babies, obviously thought Nico was the best thing since sliced bread, they followed him around, animatedly asking questions that he did his best to answer, and he’d picked up basics in three more languages, just to communicate with some of the kids who were more comfortable in languages other than English or Greek. But it was nice, that Nico could be so open and excited around people other than Will, Jason, Reyna, Draco, and Hazel, and Will only hoped that this was a sign of him getting more comfortable with himself.

The lesson was surprisingly successful. Nico’s potion looked pretty close to perfect, and he’d guided Ron, Harry, and Neville through, sounding every bit like a bossy Italian grandmother in the kitchen. Snape seemed absolutely shocked, and obviously had never considered the perks of perhaps treating his students like fellow human beings instead of nuisances that he had to endure to get a paycheque.

——

As the day went on, an excited air started to build, people making sure their friends were going to the meetings, and doing their best to make sure everybody who was going knew where and when to go.

By the time the start of the first meeting began, most of their year and the year below and above were there, sat obediently in front of Harry, Ron, Draco, Hermione, Nico, and Will.

“Our first order of business, is to make a name.” Hermione started. “Anybody got any ideas?” They ran through a few ideas, until they came to Defence Association, shortened time D.A.

Ginny raised her hand. “I like DA, only I think we should make it stand for Dumbledore’s Army. That’s what they’re all so afraid of, isn’t it?”

Hermione grinned. “Dumbledore’s Army it is.”

Harry took her place. “Right, tonight we’re going to start with me. The first spell I’d like you to work on is expelliarmus. It’s a disarming spell, and I’ve found it extremely useful.”

Zachariah Smith scoffed. “What, you expect us to defend ourselves with a disarming spell?”

Harry glared at him. “Well I used it against Voldemort and I’m still stood in front of you, aren’t I? We’ll move onto more things, but this is a good one to have in your arsenal. Everybody pair off. Ron come stand across so I can demonstrate.”

After showing everyone one to do, he walked around, correcting people on their stance or hand movement.

After a good half an hour, it was time for Draco’s section. “Right. Nico is going to conjure some, uh, skeleton things. I don’t really understand the magic behind them, but the point is, they’re going to be intimidating, and they’re not going to stop advancing until you defeat them. The spell I want you to practice today is petrified totalus. It’s not dark magic, it’s not anything inherently evil or anything like that, but it will stop your opponent.” He motioned for Nico to bring in the skeletons, then demonstrated on one, which instantly froze up and fell over.

He got them to queue up, instead of pair off, so that he could keep a close eye on whoever was casting the spell.

Eventually though, it was time for Nico and Will’s segment.

“Everybody listen up.” Nico called, holding up a stack of clothing. “Everyone please come to me for gym clothes, girls changing room over there,” he motioned to a door. “Guys over here.” To another. “If anyone is uncomfortable with either of those, come to me and we’ll get you sorted.”

It took a good fifteen minutes for everybody to get clothes in their size and to get changed, but once they were all assembled back in front of him, Nico grinned wickedly. “I don’t think any of you could hold a sword with two hands for longer than thirty seconds right now, so before we move onto some actual combat, we’re gonna get you guys into shape.”

He started leading them through a borderline cruel workout regime, even Will and Draco only just keeping up with him. By the end of it the wizards were sweaty and panting, absolutely exhausted.

Will have everyone five minutes to have a drink and cool down before calling for their attention. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna make you do anything now. Me and Nico have put together a workout schedule and a rough suggested dietary plan. It’s nothing strict, it’s just an idea of what kind of thing you want to be eating to maximise this training. These are all enchanted.” He started handing out leaflets. “They’ll recalculate based on your biological information, which it can read from touching you. We’ll be able to change anything on it whenever we decide to up the ante.”

He smiled brightly. “You can all keep the workout clothes, but I would advise trying to get your hands on more. That’s it for tonight.”

——

Once everybody had left, Harry eyed Draco and Nico. “Could we see you fight? With weapons and powers and stuff? I wanna see what we’re in for with this whole training deal.”

Nico and Draco looked at each other, then back at Harry, before taking their shirts off, and pulling out swords. “Sure thing.” Nico grinned.

Harry shuddered. “Jesus Nico What is that thing.” He watched Nico’s sword warily.

“Oh, it’s Stygian Iron. Don’t touch it or you’ll lose your soul.” He shrugged, then began circling Draco.

Will sat down next to Harry. “He’s not kidding. I’ve had to treat people that have touched it. Not pretty.”

The fight was intense, and to anyone that didn’t know them, it would look like they were genuinely trying to kill each other. It ended eventually with Nico’s sword at Draco’s throat, Draco’s sword halfway across the room.

Will, Ron, Hermione and Harry clapped and cheered, until Will started herding them out. “Go on. Sleep. You’ve got a mile to run tomorrow morning you need to sleep.”

Once they’d left he grinned at Nico and hugged him close. “I think we did good sunshine.” He murmured gently. “I think we did good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come find me on tumblr under the same name. Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final DA meeting before Christmas, Harry kisses Cho, Nico realises he’s made a mini-me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might have skewed the timeline, I can’t remember, but the Weasley dream will be the next chapter :)

As they progressed towards Christmas, the wizards slowly began to complete a whole DA session without someone needing to see a Will for over exertion or dehydration, and soon they were having regular duels, whether magical or physical. They’d discovered the Room of Requirement sometime around October, after Harry and Nico had gotten thoroughly pissed at Umbridge, and the six had decided to host their last session for the term there. 

Nico had been grinning evilly to himself for the whole week since the last session, when he’d cryptically warned everyone that the next week would be the hardest session so far. 

Even Will looked a bit maniacal as they made their way to the fifth floor, and the pair of them kept making eye contact and laughing darkly. 

When they arrived at the hallway, Nico stepped forward. “I need the room to look a very certain way, so I gotta be the one to ask for it okay?” Harry and Hermione glanced at each other in confusion, but nodded slowly. 

They watched him pace until the door appeared, and everyone’s jaw, even Will’s, dropped instantly as they stepped inside. Nico had managed to ask for a full parkour gym, with foam matting everywhere and the occasional trampoline. 

“Nico..” Draco kept looking between the room and Nico. “Nico you’re actually going to kill them. You’ll have reduced the Hogwarts population by about a fifth. They’re going to die.” 

“Eh they’ll be fine.” He waved a hand. “Most of this is here so I can have some fun once everyone is gone. We’re just gonna work on some basic balance and stuff.” 

“Hold up.” Harry held a hand up. “Are you seriously saying this is your idea of fun? Show us then.” He raised an eyebrow challengingly. 

Will groaned and face palmed as Nico ran off to get changed. “Harry we’ve talked about this. If Nico says he has a weird skill like having conversational fluency in six languages and complete fluency in three, what do we do?” He crossed his arms, looking for all the world like a stern mother. 

Harry ducked his head sheepishly. “We assume he’s telling the truth because he can travel to any country by running into a wall and grew up bilingual therefore it makes sense that he speaks a bunch of languages.” He recited dutifully.

Will nodded. “Good. So if Nico says he can do parkour, what do we do?” 

“We assume he can do parkour because he fights monsters to survive and therefore has likely picked up some skills about running away from things.” Harry muttered. 

“There we go.” Will ruffled Harry’s hair fondly as Nico came out of the changing area in loose basketball shorts and a tank top, hair tied back as he’d let it grow out since arriving at Hogwarts. 

“Right kiddos.” He announced, as if the whole DA was there. “Here’s how we parkour.” He started running the course, doing random flipped and shit as he went along. The DA began to file in, all looking as shocked as the others had when they first saw it. 

At least five people separately approached Will and Hermione to confirm that they wouldn’t have to do that before Nico finished and jogged back over. 

“Okay.” Harry started. “Today we’re just gonna do a quick run through of everything we’ve taught you so far, and then we’re going to hand you over to Nico so he can thoroughly torture you.” Nico waved cheerily. “So we’re going to gather in a circle.” He motioned for everyone to do so, and once they were ready, he conjured one of the training dummies. 

“This is going to come at each and every one of you, but with no specific order or pattern. When it starts to roll towards you, I want you to defend yourself. Any curse, jinx, hex, whatever you can think of.”

“Anything I’ve taught you included.” Draco interjected. 

Harry nodded. “Are we all ready?” 

Once everybody had confirmed, Hermione started the dummy going. 

They got through almost everyone before Ginny cast the most powerful reducto Harry had every seen, and completely bloody disintegrated the whole dummy. Before he or Hermione could think to replace it, Nico clapped his hands.

“I guess that signifies the start of my bit. Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to suddenly pull backflips out of nowhere. We’re just gonna run through some basics. Will, darling, light of my life.” He smiled imploringly at Will, who groaned. 

“What do you want?” 

“I just need a hand with demonstrating. Honestly it’s like you don’t trust me. I’m hurt.” 

Will rolled his eyes and walked over reluctantly. 

Nico ran them through a simple exercise, getting Will to demonstrate as he talked them through it so he could point bits out. “See how his foot’s positioned?” He motioned to the way Will was stood. “A few degrees out and you’d completely lose all balance.” 

Over the course of the evening he ramped up the difficulty, until anyone who couldn’t do what he was asking them to do was sent to do more of whichever exercise would help them overcome the issue. By the end of the night even he was pink faced and breathing hard, but grinning broadly. 

Subtly, Hermione and Will had set up mistletoe around the room, in the hopes of getting Draco and Harry to finally come to their senses. As people started leaving, Nico dragged Will off to fuck about on the trampolines, trying to flip higher and higher, while Ron and Hermione curled up in the corner Hermione always made sure was in the training room, for if anyone got hurt. 

Draco nudged Harry. “Hey, mistletoe.” He smiled lightly. “Why don’t you go grab Cho? I know you’ve had your eye on her since at least last year. This could be your big moment.” 

Harry blinked in confusion then nodded, and walked off to Cho. 

Draco went and joined Will and Nico, keeping an eye on Cho and Harry as he kissed her. 

——

Ron pokes Hermione. “‘Mione..Harry’s snogging Cho. Why is Harry snogging Cho??” 

Hermione looked up sharply. “Are you bloody kidding me?” 

Ron gasped teasingly. “Hermione Granger! How could you?” He kissed her cheek. “How stupid are they?” 

She sighed in frustration. “I bet Draco told him to. Seems just like something he’d do. Harry’s far too oblivious to have sorted his act out enough to distinguish his feelings for Draco, and the left over infatuation with Cho.” 

She dragged him over to Nico, Will, and Draco. “Will, Nico. Your sons are being stupid again.” She announced.

Will and Nico stopped doing flips to stare at her in confusion. Hermione pointed around Cho and Harry, still wrapped up in each other. 

Nico swore. “Draco, my sweet little dragon, are you actually this dumb.” He sat down next to Draco. “We set up all this mistletoe, left you alone so you two could finally kiss, and you let him get it on with Cho?!”

Draco looked up at him in confusion. “What are you on about? Harry doesn’t like me? Besides he’s clearly got a thing for Cho, otherwise when I suggested he use the opportunity to kiss her, he wouldn’t have?” 

Will knocked his head against the wall. “You told him? You went up to your crush, and you said to his face that he should kiss someone else? Are you..how..?” He kept mumbling to himself about how stupid boys were. 

Nico patter Draco’s shoulder consolingly. “Most of this is just him reliving how awkward I was before he asked me out. I helped four people hit on him before he lectured me on how to take a hint and do I have to wear a t shirt that says Nico I like you, and I can’t believe you literally acted as a wingman, and I’d let it slide if Jason hasn’t constantly been updating me on how I need to make a move because you’ve been ranting about how much you like the way I look when I’m doing archery.” 

Hermione looked between Nico and Will. “Nico. What. How?” She looked at Draco in complete confusion. “And how did you make another one?”

Nico started giggling, then Will joined in, slightly hysterical. Soon all five of them were leaned against each other, laughing wildly, Nico slapping the floor, and Draco curled forward, bright red, shaking and not making a sound. 

“Don’t-Don’t worry Draco,” Nico managed. “‘Seph only t-turned me into..” he trailed off, absolutely cackling. “Seph only turned me into a dandelion for,” he paused to breathe, leaning heavily against Will. “For two weeks for being so stupid.” 

Will nodded encouragingly. “She’d only k-keep you there for a week m-max.” The pair of them glanced at each other then dissolved back into laughter. 

They’d calmed down a little by the time Harry made his way over, but every couple of minutes they’d catch each other’s eyes and set themselves off again.  
Harry stared at them bewildered, but Nico only stood up, clapped him on the shoulders, and kissed his temple.

“Don’t be so fucking stupid.” He declared, then grabbed Will and shadowtravelled them both back to their dorm. 

Harry blinked at the three left. “Did Nico absolutely lose it whilst I was..” he cleared his throat awkwardly. “Talking to Cho?” 

Draco shrugged, cheeks still red. “It’s honestly questionable as whether he ever had any sanity to lose. How did your chat with Cho go?” 

Hermione and Ron looked at each other, before standing up. “I can feel the brain cells I’m losing just being around you two right now.” Hermione complained before they left. 

Draco stood up as well. “We should probably go.” 

Harry nodded. “It was a hit awkward.” He started as they made their way out. “She started crying which was a bit weird.” 

Draco rolled his eyes dramatically. “She probably feels sad about Cedric, and I’d wager you remind her of him. From there she likely feels conflicted; how can she respectfully mourn Cedric, whilst moving on with you, but also can she really pass up what could be a great relationship for her dead boyfriend? What would Cedric want for her? Is she ready to take that step?”

Harry blinked slowly. “Bloody hell. How the hell did you know that?” 

Draco stiffened slightly. “Harry I’m a demigod. Do you know how many of my friends have lost their romantic partner? I met Nico and Will because I lost my best friend when I was nine. It’s..I just..it’s something I’ve had to think about a little more than you, I guess.” 

Harry stopped dead. “I..I didn’t even think of that.” He moved forward as if to hug Draco. “Can I..?” 

Draco gave him a slight smile and nodded. “That’s why my dads are here. So you don’t have to go through that.” He leaned into Harry. “Anyway. Enough of that. I wanted to ask you something. You’ve got complete say. But..we can’t go back to our time for Christmas, and I’m no longer welcome at Malfoy Manner. We’re perfectly happy to stay at the Leakey Cauldron, but I don’t suppose you’ve got any space with you?” He focused his gaze on the wall. “Ron and Hermione mentioned that you’re staying somewhere else now.” He added quietly.

“No of course. I’d love that. I’ll write to Sirius tonight, to let him know that you’re all coming. He might have some problems with you at first, because he’ll associate you with the Malfoys, but if you explain that you’re not really their son, maybe um..” Harry trailed off sheepishly. “Maybe you could say they’re your legal guardians? Like how you originally told us?” 

Draco nodded slowly. “Yeah I can..” He paused. “Did you say Sirius?!” He asked shrilly. “Sirius Black? You’re living with Sirius Black?”

Harry shushed him quickly. “Sirius is innocent. I don’t have time to explain the whole thing now, but I promise he’s innocent.” 

Draco nodded warily after a moment. “I trust you.” He smiled shyly then shook his head. “Right. Um. We best be off. Goodnight.” 

Harry nodded, then quickly hugged Draco again, before they went their separate ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why does it seem rushed, I hear you ask? Because I’ve got no clue how to write action. Please comment any tips you have, I’m happy to go back through and have another hash at it if you’ve got any improvements :)


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Arthur Weasley dream, Nico spills the beans, Christmas

Harry was moving down a black bricked corridor. He could feel the power coiled within his body, and as he came across Arthur Weasley tied to a chair, he only did what was natural.

He struck.

And again.

And again.

And again.

——

Harry shot up. “Ron! Ron! It’s your dad! Ron! Wake up Ron wake up!” He shook Ron awake frantically, yelling for someone to get Hermione. “Ron wake up wake up!”

Finally Ron woke up. “Harry, mate what is it?”

“Ron it’s your dad he’s been hurt. Come on we need to find Dumbledore.” He started tugging on Ron’s arm. “Let’s go!”

He grabbed Ron, and then Hermione when they made it to the common room. “Seamus, Dean, use your coins to get Nico, Will and Draco.” When they stared blankly at him, he snapped what he’d just said again then burst out of the common room and started running towards Dumbledore’s office.

When the trio arrived, Nico, Will and Draco were already there, Nico and Draco pale as sheets.

Will immediately swept over and pulled Harry close to him. “I know that was scary.” He murmured soothingly. “It was Ron’s dad, right? Mr Weasley?” Harry nodded shakily. “Ho-How did you know?”

Will kissed his hair lightly. “Neeks and Draco had the same dream. Professor McGonagall is just getting Professor Dumbledore now. Can you relax a bit for me?”

Harry resisted it for a moment, but the warmth of Will’s hold and the gentle rhythm of him shushing lulled him until he was less angry. “I hurt him..I hurt him.” He buried his face in Will’s shoulder. “He was just sitting there, tied up and defensless and I just kept-kept attacking him..” Will hummed encouragingly. “I couldn’t stop.” He whispered. “I kept screaming at my-myself to stop and I couldn’t..”

“You were the snake?” Will confirmed. Harry nodded. “Draco and Neeks were watching, does that mean anything to you?” He shook his head. “I’ve never had a dream like this before.”

Will frowned slightly. “Now I’m going to go speak to Professor Dumbledore for the three of you, I don’t think you need to relive it and Draco was able to give me lots of helpful information about where it was.” He slowly pulled back. “Hermione, Ron, can you take these three back to our dorm please? There’s some chocolate in the cupboard besides the door, that should help.”

He turned to McGonagall, who was watching him with a stern expression. “And just where do you think you’re sending them, Mr Solace?” She enquired.

Will stood his ground. “I’ve got enough experience with demigod dreams to know what’s going on Professor. I’ve got all the information Professor Dumbledore needs, but I won’t have my patients being interrogated in the manner that I would assume is appropriate for a suspected assault on a close friend?”

“Your patients?” She pressed.

“Respectfully, You know full well my heritage, Professor, and I made sure that Nico’s father had you made aware that I would suffice for a medical official regarding Nico. Seeing as Draco is soon to be my adoptive son, I suggest you allow that courtesy to extend.”

McGonagall sagged. “I can’t explicitly condone what you’ve done Mr Solace, understand, but....thank you.” She smiled slightly. “For taking care of them. Goodness knows those boys need it.” She nodded approvingly at him, and motioned for Will to follow her.

Dumbledore was waiting for them when they reached his office. “Mr Solace? I was expecting Mr Malfoy, Mr Di Angelo, and perhaps Mr Potter?”

“Those three have just suffered something a little traumatic, Professor, especially Harry, seeing as it was his father figure who was attacked.” Will replied. “I’ve sent them to go calm down and have some chocolate. I hope you’ll understand that I don’t think it’s wise for them to be interrogated. If there’s any information I don’t have, that you need, I’ll ask them later.”

Dumbledore frowned but acquiesced. “Can you explain this dream?”

He nodded. “Draco and Nico were both in what Draco believes to be a corridor in the department of Mysteries at the Ministry Of Magic. I hope that means something to you. They both watched as a man, identified by Draco and Harry as Arthur Weasley, who was tied to a chair, was attacked repeated by a snake. Draco thinks it was perhaps Voldemort’s snake, who he’s seen at the Malfoy Manner. She is quite vicious, apparently. By the end, Mr Weasley looked to be in need of urgent medical care. Harry, however, was the snake. He had no control over the dream or the snake, but he was the one attacking Mr Weasley. I hope that helps.”

Dumbledore started barking orders and paintings and McGonagall and Fawks, occasionally clarifying a detail with Will.

Finally, he stopped and turned back to Will. “I’m going to organise a portkey. I’ll sort the other Weasley children, but you need to get Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I’m going to send them home.”

Will nodded. “The portkey needs to be able to take me, Nico and Draco too. We’re staying with them for Christmas.”

“I’ll take care of that.” He went back to talking to one of the paintings, and Will took that as his cue to leave, and made his way back to the dorm quickly.

He got back to the dorm to find all five of them asleep, curled up on the bed, Nightmare tangled in Nico’s hair. He carefully took a picture with the camera Nico had found in a cupboard the other day for Reyna and Jason, then started shaking them all awake gently.

——

Harry was a bit..apprehensive to introduce Sirius to Nico, Will and Draco, but it appeared he didn’t need to be.

Nico had immediately stepped forward and held a hand out. “Sirius Black?”

Sirius had nodded warily. “And you are?”

**”Son of Hades. Myself and my boyfriend are on a quest that involves saving your life.”**

Sirius nodded immediately and shook his hand. **”It’s lovely to meet another child of the underworld. Your boyfriend is the sunny one?”**

Nico laughed and nodded, waving Will forward. “Sirius, this is Will Solace, my boyfriend slash doctor, tesoro, this is Sirius. **Our quest.** ”

Will smiled in understanding. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sirius.”

Sirius replied similarly, before introducing Remus. **”This is my boyfriend, but the others don’t know so..”** he added, then trailed off, and Will and Nico immediately nodded. “Lovely to meet you Remus.” Will said brightly, shaking Remus’ hand. Nico followed suit, before the Weasley family descended upon them.

——

It took a full three hours to escape everybody, in between Mrs Weasley berating Nico and Draco for being too thin, and having to explain why Draco was there, and getting information about Mr Weasley, and the meal Molly had decided to cook up once she decided it was essentially breakfast time anyways.

Nico had, obviously, immediately joined in with the cooking, and Will honestly couldn’t tell if it was his Italian love for cooking or his 1930s upbringing that had him insisting he help out, but watching him putter around the kitchen with Mrs Weasley was the sweetest thing Will had ever seen, so he wasn’t going to question it.

When they’d finally been shown to a room, with only one double bed as Sirius had repeatedly mentioned, winking incessantly, they hadn’t even bothered ageing back up before curling up together and falling asleep.

They stayed like that until Molly found them, who seemed torn between finding the way Nico was sprawled on top of Will absolutely adorable, and being angry that someone had let a fifteen year old couple share a bed, until Draco took her aside subtly, and explained that Nico had suffered a lot, and found it much easier to sleep next to Will, at which point she’d immediately softened, and merely left a plate of biscuits on the bedside table and drawn the curtains before leaving.

The pair didn’t wake up until mid afternoon, still tangled up in each other. Will, as usual, woke first, and pressed a kiss to Nico’s hair before grabbing a biscuit. He then carefully shifted, until he was sat propped up against the headboard and started reading one of the textbooks he’d brought with him. The current plan was for him to go to medical school next year. He’d have gone sooner if it hadn’t been so difficult to create a thorough paper trail for his existence, although now he was glad they’d had to postpone for so long.

Draco and Harry slipped in after a while, climbing in wordlessly, Draco tucking himself against Will’s side, and Hermione and Ron followed not too long after.

Will raised an eyebrow at then questioningly, but they all just shrugged, bar Draco, who’d fallen asleep immediately.

By the time Nico woke up, the others were also asleep, Will using Draco’s head to prop up his book as he read. “Hey, darlin’. How’d’ya sleep?” He asked quietly.

Nico yawned and sat up, resting his head on Will’s shoulder. “Good. Why are there four children in our bed?”

Will laughed quietly and handed him a biscuit. “I have no idea. Draco and Harry came in about an hour ago, then Hermione and Ron followed.”

“We can’t adopt children that already have parents can we?” He asked sadly.

“I mean. We could feasibly meet up with them in our time, once they’re aged.”

“But then they’ll be older than us.”

“That’s true. But, if we sign the documents from your dad, they can still be our kids according to the law of the underworld.”

Nico hummed thoughtfully. “We’ll have to see I guess.”

——

The next few days passed quickly, especially with all the sneaking about Will and Nico had to do to shadow travel out of the house to get presents. And the sneaking about they had to do to get five minutes alone. It seemed once Molly had deemed them recovered from the whole dream ordeal, she no longer could approve of them being alone together. Even at night she insisted they left the door open so they wouldn’t get up to anything.

Nico could tell it was wearing Will down. Sure he always came across as the more people-friendly of the two, but Nico knew Will had his limits, had moments where he needed to be able to put the big smiles and the energy to one side, and simply curl up by himself with a book. Nico was used to carving out time so that Will could have that, but this family couldn’t seem to get their heads around the concept.

Arthur Weasley’s return home from hospital had given them a brief respite as all the attention was on him for a day or two, but then Mrs Weasley cracked down again, and although it was with the best intentions, it was grating to say the least.

After the fifth time Nico watched Will’s lazy smile crumble before reforming into something bright and fake as someone entered a room they thought they’d have to themselves for a while, he decided enough was enough. He gathered the kids on Christmas Eve in the boy’s room. “Right.” He addressed them all.

“Will’s Christmas present is a trip to Paris. No one else is going. You’re all going to convince Mrs Weasley that actually we’re very trustworthy and that she can’t stop us, because as endearing as she is, I would kill everyone in this building bar Will and then myself to make him happy, and this consistent lack of alone time is making him very unhappy. Understood?”

They all nodded meekly, then Draco raised his hand. “Would you really kill us for Will?”

Nico waved a hand. “One the one hand, killing you probably wouldn’t make him happy because he’s soppy like that, but on the other hand I once banished someone’s soul whilst they were still alive because they threatened my best friend so..” he let that sink in before smiling. “Any other questions?”

Harry spoke first. “How do you banish someone’s soul whilst they’re alive?”

Nico shrugged. “I’m not one hundred percent clear on the process, but I basically turned him into a ghost, and then banished that ghost.”

“Where in Paris are you going?” Hermione asked. “And for how long?”

“We’re going for five days. We’ll be staying in a house my father keeps by the Seine for ‘Seph, we’ll probably mostly do touristy things, it depends on what Will wants to do.”

Even Ron made a quiet ‘aw’ sound at that, although he started laughing when Nico turned red.

“Shut up, the lot of you. See if we’ll make you all our underworld-legal kids if you’re gonna be such brats.” He snapped teasingly, before he groaned and put his head in his hands, as the rest went silent.

Harry coughed awkwardly. “Did you mean that?” He asked shyly, hopefully.

Nico nodded into his hands. “We were gonna ask. It was gonna be a whole thing. Obviously we’re human legally adopting Draco. And we can’t human legally adopt Harry because otherwise you two would be brothers, and you two are oblivious as it is, you don’t need a legal barrier. And we wouldn’t want to take place of your actual parents.” He nodded to Ron and Hermione. “It’d just be that when you died you’d join us like Draco will. On the underworld council. Obviously we’d need confirmation from my dad, and you guys would actually need to want it, and it’s all gonna be a bit hand wavy because we’re from another time, but it’s only fifteen years in the future so I don’t know but anyways..” he trailed off sheepishly.

“I want it.” Harry said immediately. “I’ve already accidentally referred to Will as mum in my head.” He blushed faintly.

Ron and Hermione nodded slightly. “I’d have to think about it.” Hermione said. “Obviously I don’t want to replace my parents in any way.. but I also get where Harry’s coming from.” Ron nodded in agreement. “Me too. Also how will the whole time thing work? Can’t we travel back and forth in it like you guys can?”

Nico grimaced. “I don’t know, to be honest. My ideal plan would be to work something out with Hecate, so that you guys could, but I’m not one hundred percent sure how that would work. But anyways, unless you manage to convince Molly that she should let us go to Paris without raising a fuss, because make no mistake if I have to shadowtravel in front of her to make a point then I will, then it’ll be a moot point because I’m not having helpless brats for kids.”

——

Come Christmas morning, Will could barely be bothered to get out of bed. He missed camp. He missed the way Kayla and Austin would write their own shitty Christmas carols and sing them incessantly, and he missed the way that there was a massive secret Santa between all of them and you never knew if your present wasn’t going to be something thoughtful and well informed from your best friend or something that meant absolutely nothing until it came from a nervous unclaimed eight year old who you’d never spoken to before.

Mostly he just missed the way that after the hearty Christmas lunch they’d have, the day belonged to him and Nico. They’d gone a different place every year the past couple times for a small holiday. They’d been to Venice, Russia, and Japan to name a few. Hades seemed to have properties in almost every big city, and even if he didn’t have anything there, the identity he had on earth carried enough weight to get them into hotels.

They’d been considering Paris and Seoul in July, but then the quest had happened, and Will didn’t want to bring it up in case Nico felt bad. Or worse...in case it wasn’t as important to him.

Nico eventually managed to coax him downstairs, where everyone was waiting to exchange presents. He smiled tightly. “Morning everyone.”

They started exchanging presents, Draco’s eyes wide and suspiciously bright at the Weasley jumper he’d received, and Harry and Ron looked absolutely delighted at the quidditch books Will and Nico had gotten them.

Nico only handed Will a thick envelope, before he opened the box Will had given him. “Tesoro!” He grinned broadly and picked up one of the intricate throwing knives, looking absolutely delighted. Obviously he’d said it too loud, and the others had looked over.

“Is that..knives, Nico?” Mrs Weasley asked slowly, looking deeply displeased.

Nico nodded, too happy with the knives to bother trying to look sheepish. “They’re gorgeous. Perfectly weighted too. Di immortals, where did you get these?” He flipped the one he was holding onto the air and caught it easily. “I love them.” He leaned over and kissed Will, ignoring Molly’s unhappy comment.

“Now open yours.” He murmured against Will’s lips. “Come on I wanna watch your face.”

Will opened the envelope, his heart rising into his throat at the sight of the booking confirmations that Hades always felt the need to give them when they used one of his properties, as well as a brochure on things to do and see in Paris.

“Baby..” he murmured, throat feeling tight. He looked up at Nico. “You didn’t...”

Nico was watching him expectantly. “There’s some more stuff waiting in the house there but..what’d’ya say?” He looked almost nervous, and Will could barely resist throwing himself at him. “When do we leave?”

Nico grinned. “Tonight, like always.”

Molly finally seemed to have gotten over her shock at the knives. “Leaving?!” She asked shrilly. “Where are you going?”

“Paris.” They responded in unison. “We go somewhere different for Christmas ever year.” Nico added.

“Without adults? What about your parents?”

Will resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “We have full parental permission. It’s Nico’s dads house we’re staying in. Nico’s dad and stepmom will probably stop in for an afternoon.” He replied firmly.

She relaxed slightly. “If you’re sure.. “ then, after a moment. “How will you get there?”

Will glanced at Nico, they hadn’t planned to tell anyone else, but Nico seemed to have this one in hand. “We learn apparating earlier in America than you do here. We’ll apparate there.”

She started to look disapproving again. “Apparating? At fifteen?”

Will sighed. “Mrs Weasley, I appreciate the concern, I really do, and I’m incredibly grateful for you having us here for the last couple of days, but we apparate regularly, and Nico’s parents will likely meet us there. We’ll be fine.”

She relented, and the lot of them continued opening presents. Nico had gotten Sirius a ring that would work as a shield to all aggressive magic, alongside a note that explained exactly that.

The rest of the day flew by. Almost too quickly they were packed and saying their goodbyes, before Nico shadowtravelled them to a mansion on the banks of the Seine. “Welcome to Paris, mio caro.” Nico murmured gently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos And comments appreciated- if you don’t like something about it, let me know what the problem is and if it’s reasonable I’ll try to do something about it :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tbh the golden trio plus Draco aren’t in this one, but, may I offer instead: hades and Nico being awkward but adorable, Persephone and Nico being the sweetest, Will and Hades having a jam, and Christmas presents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit shorter than the last few have been, but that’s because it’s pure fluff and it’s just a bit of a breather from the plot

The first thing they did when they got inside the house was age back up. The second thing they did was find the biggest bed in the place and climb in. Not to do anything, just lie there, skin to skin, and hold each other for a while. 

They laid there for almost two hours, Will idly tracing the tattoo spanning Nico’s back. The original plan had been a pair of wings, for Di Angelo, but he’d decided he wanted not only to honour his mother, but the long list of incredible women in his life. So instead of just wings, it was a furious avenging angel. Will knew the design had come from Hazel, and the wings were based of Thanatos’. Most of the piece had been done by the mortal artist that had done most of the ink on Nico’s body, but this piece in particular had an ethereal blue glow from an ink Nico had had added by someone on Elysium, and Will was almost certain the ink had been a gift from Hades. 

Eventually, Will’s stomach growled, they both glanced at each other then burst out laughing, before Nico grabbed the leaflet of things to do. “What kinda food do you fancy, il mio amore?” 

Will smiled and leaned against him. “Something local?” He started flipped through the leaflet before finding a traditional restaurant that was close to them. 

Nico called to make a reservation, easily switching to French. He’d had Piper help him learn it after a ten year old boy had been brought to camp, who’d only recently moved to America from France and knew little English. 

They showered and changed quickly, and Will glared at Nico until he procured a pair of winter coats from a cupboard somewhere. 

“It’s not even that cold.” Nico protested.

“Darlin’, it’s literally snowing. And we both know that you’ll be the one to have a fit if you get all cold and shivery and you’ll whine until I give you my coat, and then you’ll complain that I’m cold when we go to bed.” 

“Ugh, fine.” He put the coat on reluctantly, then shadowtravelled them to the restaurant.

The restaurant was beautiful, decked in Christmas lights, but in a tasteful manner, dusted in snow with a warm light radiating out.

They made their way inside, and were guided to a table by the window looking out at the river by a server. 

The food was amazing, and they drank more than was probably appropriate in public. The pair made their way back to the house, staggering slightly, occasionally pausing to press each other up against buildings and lampposts and even a stop sign to kiss and laugh, and it took them almost an hour to walk the short distance. 

They arrived back at the house in one piece, incredibly, and in a moment of drunk bravery, Will lifted Nico up and carried him inside, certain that the only reason he wasn’t suddenly sprouting knives in places he didn’t want knives to be was that Nico had drunk more than him because the waitress was impressed by his French. 

Will made it up the stairs before his coordination failed him, and they ended up in a pile on the floor, laughing loudly. After a moment, Nico quietened down and just looked at Will for a minute.

“I love you so much.” He murmured after a moment. “I love you so fucking much.”

Will grinned and kissed everywhere he could reach. “I love you too darling. Gods do I love you.” 

——

The next couple days passed in a blur of snow fights and cuddles and IMing Draco whenever he got a spare minute to update them on Mr Weasley’s condition and how Harry was faring. 

On their last day there, Hades and Persephone came over in the afternoon. Nico had spent the whole morning cooking some fancy Italian meal that Will couldn’t name for the life of him, but that looked absolutely incredible. 

Hades had a pile of boxes in his arms that towered over him precariously, even though Persephone was only holding a small handbag. Will immediately started helping Hades put the boxes down before they fell everywhere. 

“William,” Hades started, glaring slightly. Oh fuck. 

“Yeah?” Too casual shit abort abort.

“Why has my son asked to add three more children to your little family for post death benefits?” 

“Oh. Um. Well. On the quest, we met Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. And obviously we have to be close with them for the quest. Except Draco goes there, you know, the kid we’re adopting in the mortal world as well as this one, and um, since we knew Draco and we trusted the kids, we told them everything, like you and Hecate said we could,” he winced. “So then we became friends except they’re friends with our son, so we formed a more..fatherly relationship with them? And two of them have parents so we don’t want to interfere with that, and one of them is deeply in love with Draco so we can’t adopt him either and then Nico figured we could do this?”

Hades rolled his eyes. “Relax, I’m not going to smite you or anything. Did I look a bit smitey? ‘Seph says I sometimes look more murderous than I intend to.” 

Will held his index finger and thumb a centimetre apart. “Maybe a little bit smitey?” After a beat he smiled nervously. “So..the kids?” 

Hades hummed thoughtfully. “Only because ‘Seph wants grandchildren and Melinoe is entirely uninterested. I suppose you want Hecate to bless them so they can come visit your time occasionally?” 

“If..if that’s okay?” He asked slowly. 

“I’ll see what I can do. Did, uh, did Nico like the knives?” Hades didn’t look nervous. That would be ridiculous. He did sort of look a little bit unsure, to Will’s eye, but he was probably mistaken. 

“He loved them. You brought the matching daggers right?” 

Hades nodded. “In one of the boxes. ‘Seph insisted we celebrate Christmas in the true American fashion. Shall we?” He motioned to the kitchen.

Will nodded, and they made their way through to where Nico was talking Persephone through the different dishes. Their relationship was still a bit tentative, but Persephone obviously adored having someone to dote on asides her daughter, and Nico seemed drawn to powerful women that could beat the shit out of him but liked him enough not to.

“Dad!” Nico finally looked up to see Hades, and he hugged him tightly. Hades was still getting used to the affection, but he clearly loved his son, and the more pre-Lethe memories Nico regained, the more affectionate he was becoming. Hades could now deal with the regular hugs, and as far as Will was aware, they were currently working on cheek kisses, which Nico had started handing out like candy. The first time he’d kissed Jason’s cheek, the guy had absolutely lit up and Reyna had looked thoroughly stunned when it was her turn. 

“Mo-‘Seph,” Nico started, before turning bright red. “Um. Can you get the forks out of that drawer please?” He whispered, turning to Will with a panicked expression. Will just shrugged, he was pretty sure it would make Persephone’s century to know Nico thought of her as his mom. 

As expected she looked absolutely delighted, but since she had more tact than literally anyone else in the room, she got the cutlery and started setting the table as Nico pulled himself out of his daze. After five painfully awkward minutes Persephone touched his shoulder. “I’d love it if you wanted to call me mom.” She murmured softly. “I know I’ll never replace your mama, and I don’t want to. But I love you as a son, and even if you’re not ready, I want you to know that.” 

Nico’s eyes shined suspiciously before he hugged her tightly, burying his face in her shoulder. Even Hades looked vaguely emotional in a way that made him look less murderous instead of more. 

——

After dinner, they sat down in the living room to open presents. The piles for Persephone, Nico, and Will were much bigger than the pile for Hades, but he looked absolutely touched at the stack in front of him. 

Nico and Will had both had to do a couple of minor quests that summer to convince Hephaestus to forge the Stygian iron broadsword that would, according to Hephaestus, change size with Hades, similarly to Zeus’ bolt and Poseidon’s trident. It radiated death on a level even Nico’s sword couldn’t come close to, and one side had barns running down it specifically forged to hook into the soul of whoever was stupid enough to touch it. Apollo had been only too happy to provide a source of sunlight that would work in the underworld for Persephone, and Artemis had even thrown in seeds for a type of moon flower that only existed on Olympus. Finally, Will had pestered Ailuros with prayers until she’d relented, and blessed the one eyed kitten he’d picked up from an animal shelter so she’d be immortal, as both Hades and Persephone had mentioned wanting a cat, but they didn’t know the goddess well enough to feel comfortable asking her. 

They went around, each opening their presents as everyone watched. Nico was beaming at the daggers to match his throwing knives, and by the time he unwrapped a set of gilded photo frames with pictures of him and the three of them, the seven, and Reyna, and all his friends at camp, as well as the one with the kids Will had gotten the other day, he was genuinely crying into Will’s shoulder. 

Persephone had gotten Will an incredibly rare selection of plants, both poisonous and medicinal, alongside a book on how to use them, and although he loved the jewellery and weapons from Hades, he was absolutely flawed by the key ring, containing keys to an apartment in every city he had applied to a medical school in. He looked up at Hades, “are you sure?” He asked tentatively.

Hades shrugged awkwardly. “Obviously you’ll only keep the key to the apartment in the city you go to school in, but I don’t have regular business on earth these days, not with Nico around to help, and I don’t want my son and son-in-law scraping to get by when I’m the God of Riches.” 

Will beamed at him. “Thank you so much.” 

Persephone and Hades were over the moon with their gifts. “It’s basically a vessel of power.” Nico explained, regarding the sword. “The Helm of Darkness is an insult, really, Zeus and Poseidon both have weapons, and I think it’s ridiculous that you got a hat, so this will work in a similar manner. It’ll channel your energy, capture the soul of anyone it touches with more efficiency than regular Stygian Iron, and plus it’ll look really badass.” 

Hades gave them a small but genuine smile. “Thank you, my sons.” 

Will actually started glowing faintly at that, eyes a little watery. “No problem.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reunion post Paris, Snape vs Umbridge, and the discovery of the DA

The five days without Nico and Will were hard. Harry hadn’t even realised how much he’d started to depend on them until he turned to ask Nico something and he wasn’t there, or he woke up sobbing from a nightmare about his parents and Will didn’t come rushing in to hold him and tell him it was alright. 

Things with Draco were strange too. Harry sort of thought there might be something there, he’d had an inkling that his preferences were more broad than only girls, Cedric had definitely been an awakening, but it was weird. Draco was different to most people Harry knew. He didn’t care about his fame, although he’d certainly managed to act like it for a few years, and although he was generally quite soft spoken and shy, he could be as sarcastic as his dads at times, witty and scathing and hilarious. And the way he _looked_ at Harry, up through long white lashes, eyes wide and grey, cheeks pink...

In short, it was fucking with Harry’s head, and he didn’t want the condescending looks from Ron and Hermione who now considered themselves to be relationship gurus despite the four years it had taken them to figure themselves out, and Harry just.. he missed having someone to talk to who was old enough to know his mistakes weren’t really that big a deal, but young enough to know that they mattered to him, and experienced enough to deal with everything as though it was of utmost importance but wouldn’t change a thing. So sue him if when Nico and Will appeared back in Harry and Draco’s room, Harry waited only long enough for Draco to throw himself at them before doing exactly the same. The pair happily shifted to accommodate him as well, and soon Ron and Hermione came in and the six of them ended shoving Harry and Draco’s beds together and curling up on top of them. 

Mrs Weasley found them like that the next morning just in time to get them up and run them to the train station.

——

They arrived back at Hogwarts only to find another slew of Educational Decrees. The High Inquisitor could now inspect teachers and fire any she deemed unfit. It was a small miracle that she couldn’t do the rehiring, although Harry expected that wouldn’t take long to fall into place.

Their first lesson of the term was potions, and when Harry saw Umbridge waiting outside the classroom, his initial reaction was horror, but after a moment of thinking, he lit up. “Guys.” He murmured. “Snape’s gonna get inspected by Umbridge.”

Ron laughed loudly. “That’s gonna be bloody brilliant.”

Even Hermione looked pleased in a grim sort of way. “Usually I’d prefer not to have that sort of interruption, but Umbridge has kind of earned getting slated for an hour, hasn’t he?”

Snape ushered them all in, and Harry could already tell he was fuming at the presence of Umbridge. 

“Today you will be brewing the Wit Sharpening potion. You will all recall that we studied the theory for this potion in the last week of term?” 

Clearly the class preferred Snape over Umbridge, because they all nodded enthusiastically and got their textbooks and cauldrons out.

It was the best potions lesson Harry had ever been in. Nico was acting, as always, like an Italian matriarch, bossing anyone who was unsure around, which Umbridge seemed to think was inappropriate. 

“Mr Di Angelo. I have a few questions?” She hovered by his desk. “You’ll have to bear with me a moment Professor.” He replied absently as he showed Neville exactly how much moonstone time add.

“Mr Di Angelo.” He ignored her until he was finished, then turned to her. “Yes Professor?” He flashed her a bright, definitely fake, smile. “Well firstly, why do you have your textbook in a different language?”

“I’m dyslexic, Miss, and I find it easier to read in my mother tongue.” She raised an eyebrow. “I’m Italian.” She still looked disbelieving.

“Professor, I don’t know if you read the register, but my name is Niccolò Di Angelo. My mama was Italian. I lived there until I was ten.” He said slowly.

Umbridge harrumphed. “Anyway. Why do you tell all the other students what to do? Surely that’s Professor Snape’s job? Or is he incompetent?”

Harry has to stifle laughter as Nico batted his eyes innocently. “Of course not. Professor Snape is a wonderful teacher, but he also wants to give an opportunity to those of us who feel confident and have an interest in sharing our tips and tricks. See how Hermione is demonstrating the correct stirring pattern, and Will is correcting Pansy’s chopping action?” 

Will waved brightly as he gently changed the angle of Pansy’s wrist.

“So,” Umbridge pressed, face turning a bit red. “You find that Professor Snape is helpful for your learning?”

“Yes of course.” Nico smiled brightly. “He even got me this translated textbook once he realised I couldn’t read the original.” Umbridge’s eye twitched and she moved on to someone else quickly.

“Blimey Nico, that was brilliant, mate.” Ron exclaimed as soon as she was out of earshot. Nico groaned and rubbed his face. “My cheeks hurt.” He whined. Will laughed and ruffled his hair. “Suck it up buttercup.”

——

The rest of the day continued in a similar vein. Umbridge would show up in their lesson and pick up to four lucky students to tell all on the teacher. She didn’t seem to realise that the entire school had effectively closed ranks against her, especially with so many in the DA, formed because of Umbridge, being influential in some manner-prefects, tutors, quidditch players, the list went on.

By the time they got to her classroom for the last lesson, Nico and Will had decided to pretend to forget to speak English. They’d chosen to go with different languages, so that they could act like the non-English speaking kids at camp who would chatter excitedly at each other until they heard a word that sounded similar to something in their language, at which point they’d start yelling the word until the point was gotten. Harry thought it was the best plan ever. Hermione even researched a spell that would limit the target to the vocabulary they had as a child, so that when Umbridge went off on one, they’d have an explanation.

They walked into the classroom, Will listing the medicinal properties of the plants he’d received from Persephone, in Greek, whilst Nico debates what he should name his new knives and daggers in Italian.

Umbridge already looked pissy when they walked in, and she barked at the boys to only speak English in her classroom. They both started making protesting sounds, talking over each other as though they were trying to explain the situation. She glowered, purple creeping up her neck.

“It is incredibly rude to speak in a manner so that the others around can’t understand.” She declared firmly. Hermione stepped in immediately.   
  
“Please Professor, they were hexed by a student so that they were left with the vocabulary they had as a child. It’s intention is to make the target look silly, but since neither of them spoke English as a child, well..” she motioned to Will and Nico, who were excitedly repeating some word they’d found that was similar. Harry had no idea if they actually meant the same thing, but he supposed that was the point. “We asked a professor, but they said since you’re the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, that you’d have the best idea of how to combat the hex.” 

Ron was grinning, full on heart eyes, “that’s my girlfriend.” He murmured, looking absolutely in awe. 

The purple crept up to Umbridge’s cheeks. “Well I suppose I’ll deal with them after class. They shall just have to be silent until then.” She glared at them meaningfully.

The boys shut up until half way through the lesson, when Ron asked Will a question. Will responded quickly, then pretended to realise he’d answered in English, and quickly turned to Nico. “Neeks! The hex! We can speak English again!” He made a sound of relief and sagged against his chair. “Gods that was exhausting.”

Nico looked up sharply. “We can?” He grinned broadly. “We can!”

“Silence!” Umbridge yelled, completely purple at the point. “Mr Solace, Mr Di Angelo, out!” She pointed at the door, breathing heavily. “I will not stand for this kind of disruption!”

The pair grabbed their things and left before she could actually punish them, and as the door swung shut, Harry could just see Nico tug Will down to kiss him. 

——

They held the first DA meeting of the term the next day. Harry had asked for the whole session to teach the group the patronus charm, and the others had readily agreed. 

Draco was practically bouncing on the way to the Room of Requirement. “I’m so excited to learn this. Lucius refused to teach me it, said since Voldemort controls the dementors I’d never need worry, but it’s so cool!” Harry couldn’t tear his eyes away, jesus, how did Will and Nico cope knowing they could just reach over and kiss each other at any given moment?

Harry started the sessions by explaining the theory behind a patronus, trying his best to emulate Remus. “You have to think of your happiest memory. Not some time you smiled for thirty seconds, but a time when you were filled with so much joy your chest felt like bursting, or the time you laughed so hard you cried, or the time you couldn’t stop smiling for hours and hours and hours. This isn’t about a time you felt okay. You need to capture pure happiness.” He explained, going though the wand motion. “A corporeal patronus is really hard to produce, even just a burst of light is really impressive. But not only can patronuses be used to ward off dementors and the like, they can be used to send messages, which can be incredibly important.” He sent them all off to have a go and walked around.

Ginny and Luna seemed to manage it at exactly the same time, looking at each other, Seamus and Dean pulling off a similar thing. Hermione produced an otter that immediately started weaving its way around the room, chased by a Jack Russel that came from Ron. Draco even managed a three headed wolf, that was seriously weird until Nico cast a patronus that produced a three headed Rottweiler twice the height of Harry, and Will produced a similarly sized wolf that glowed with a blinding golden light instead of the normal blue. 

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron and Harry’s faces. “Cerberus and a wolf? No?” She sighed when they looked at her blankly. “Cerberus is Hades’ dog, so Nico’s dog, and the wolf is one of Apollo, Will’s dad’s sacred animals. Their patronuses are basically their godly parents.”

“Ohhhhh.” They both nodded. “Makes sense.” Ron grinned. “that’s why you’re the brains of the operation ‘Mione.” She blushed faintly and smiled at him.

Then the room started shaking.

Nico started pacing back and forth as doors started appearing. “Everybody go!” He yelled. “Gryffindors to the red door in the corner, Ravenclaws to the screen door over there, Slytherin through the trap door by the bookshelf, Hufflepuffs through the double doors by the changing room!”

Will grabbed Harry’s hand, and then Nico’s. “Guys, make a circle with Nico, he’ll shadowtravel us as soon as everyone has made it out of here.”

They waited until everyone had left, the wall starting to crack and crumble before Nico dragged them through the shadows and back into his and Will’s dorm.

“The note!” Hermione yelled as soon as they arrived. “She can’t read the names but she’ll be able to read Dumbledore’s army!”

“What?” Nico looked at her. “Am I missing something?”

Hermione paused for a sec. “I left the register on the side. The names should be disguised, and whoever snitched will have SNEAK in boils on their forehead until sometime next week, but she’ll see the paper with Dumbledore’s army on it.”

Nico shook his head. “Go back. Who will find it?”

Hermione rolled her yes. “Men.” She muttered disdainfully. “Umbridge. Surely that’s who found us? With her inquisitorial squad or whatever she called it?” 

“Oh shit.” Nico shoved around Will until he was sat in such a manner than Nico could sit in his lap comfortably. “I think...” he grabbed Will’s arms and wrapped them around his waist, poking his arm until Will rested his chin on Nico’s head. God Harry wished he could do that with Draco. “I think the Order of the Phoenix should be involved in the DA.” Nico announced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism welcome. Find me on tumblr under the same name :)


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically the militarisation of the DA, Fred and George Fuck Shit Up™️, and Thanatos is the annoying big brother we all have, don’t want, but wouldn’t trade for the world

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What’s this? Actual plot? I think it just might be

Throws

“I’m sorry, what?” Harry asked immediately, Ron and Hermione reacting similarly.

Nico waved his hand. “Look. This lady is going to find a piece of paper with Dumbledore’s Army written on it and a list of names that she can’t see, right?” 

Hermione nodded cautiously.

“Do you think she’s just going to sit on that information?” He challenged. “If she doesn’t go straight back to the Ministry and get her boss to fire Dumbledore for raising a militia, hand to my father, I’ll give you a hundred thousand galleons.” The shadows darkened considerably for a moment before relaxing. 

“Wait,” Ron interceded. “Do you actually have a hundred thousand galleons to just hand out? You’re not even a real wizard?” 

Hermione let out a long suffering sigh. “Does God of Riches mean absolutely nothing to you, Ronald?” 

Nico shrugged. “My little sister can control precious metals. If I have to get you it in a lump of gold worth a hundred thousand galleons, I could.” 

“Blimey..”

“Back to what I was saying.” Nico started tracing the tattoo crooked in Will’s elbow. “If I was her, I’d use this as a golden opportunity to get rid of Dumbledore. I’m not saying she’s got anywhere close to my level of tactical genius.” He smirked up at Will, who rolled his eyes. “But it’s the logical step, right? So where does that leave us? In an castle we can’t leave with a bitch who doesn’t believe in Voldemort and can’t seem to do magic to undo a simple hex as our main line of defence supposedly, with someone who is obsessed with Harry and wants to kill him back from the dead and ready to fuck shit up. So I say, we bring in the Order. I can shadowtravel them here every week for the DA session, which we can host in here again.”

Harry blinked slowly. “You’re talking like this is a battle, like we’re soldiers.”

“Harry,” Will started gently. “This is a battle. And if we win it we can avoid a war. If we train the Order in the same way we’re training the kids, and if we allow them to train us in return, we’ll be way more prepared. You don’t have to think of yourselves as soldiers, but Voldermort is coming for you, and once Dumbledore is gone you can either fight or give up. If you fight, if the people who love you fight, that makes you a warrior or a soldier or whatever you want to call it but you won’t win if you’re not ready.”

“I’ll owl Sirius tonight.” Harry muttered. 

“Bad idea. I’ll shadowtravel you to Grimmauld Place. I can do it now if you want.” Nico took Harry’s hand carefully. “We will do our best to make sure you don’t lose anyone.” 

Harry smiled tiredly. “Thank you. Now, please.” 

Nico nodded and crawled out of Will’s lap precariously, before dragging Harry through the shadows to Grimmauld Place.

——

“Harry? Nico? What are you doing here?” Sirius had jumped up and grabbed a knife and his wand as soon as they’d appeared, settled into a defensive stance. “Shouldn’t you guys be at school?” He relaxed and sat back down. 

Nico nudged Harry forward, raising an eyebrow firmly at him. Harry scuffed his foot against the floor. “Uh. So we may have. Erm. Messed up a little bit? And Dumbledore may be about to get lightly fired? And that may possibly be our fault?” After a moment of shocked silence, he continued bravely. “..Anyways the fun part is, do you want to come to school once a week to get trained in physical combat as well as to train about one hundred and fifty kids in magical combat?” 

Sirius and Remus looked at each other, then back at the boys, then back at each other, before Remus buried his head in his hands. “Sweet fuck there’s more of you.” He muttered, almost deliriously. 

Sirius was grinning proudly. “Of course we’ll come. We’ll get the others involved as well.” 

Harry stared at them weirdly. “Do you, um, I mean.. you don’t want to know about the rest of it?” 

Nico face palmed. “Di immortals, Harry. We coulda just left. We woulda been fine. But no, you’ve got to bring up all the shit don’t you?” 

Sirius laughed maniacally. “Explain then, how, Harry, how the Hades,” Nico glowered at him. “How the fuck did you get dumbledore fired?”

Harry’s cheeks burned miserably. “We..um..made a defence club? Because Umbridge is a horrible teacher..and then..we got caught? Kind of? No students got caught but we think Umbridge may have found the note where we declared ourselves Dumbledore’s Army?”

“No..” Remus slowly dissolved into laughter. “You made.. you formed..” he hiccuped loudly, which just set him and Sirius off even more. “..and trained what the Ministry may interpret as a..a militia working for the one person they fear may be trying to take over?” 

“...perhaps?” 

——

It was kinda depressing that Nico was right. It wasn’t in the least surprising, but it was annoying anyways. Harry has relayed the whole story, about how the ministry, including Percy fucking Weasley, which Ron looked fucking furious about, had shown up and yelled a bit, and then Dumbledore’s Phoenix had flown over his head out of nowhere and then Dumbledore had literally disappeared. As you do. 

Their first session with the order was a bit of a mess, because Moody didn’t take very kindly to being told to do sit ups by a fifteen year old, but by the end of the night, they had a plan in place for the sessions. The end of the session, Nico had gotten everyone to sit down. 

“Look, I know there’s a fair bunch of you here that are only here to learn how to use defensive magic, and stuck around for the combat training because it was useful. But the direction we’re heading in is not a happy one, and if any of you aren’t comfortable with the idea of fighting actual adults who intend to hurt you and your friends, I suggest you either get a reality check, or leave now.” 

He allowed a moment for anyone who wanted to leave to leave, then Will joined him. “I’m sure you’ve all heard about Dumbledore’s leaving, and Voldemort’s return.” He began, eyes hard, and tone leaving no room for questions or denial. “Now that Dumbledore has left the castle, we expect Voldemort to make some kind of move. We’re not sure what he’s going to do or when, but this isn’t about a bit of fun anymore, this is about learning to defend yourselves in the face of men and women that have been fighting dirty battles for longer than some of you have been alive, and walking out of whatever Voldemort throws at us alive.”

“From now on, we’ll be splitting the sessions down properly. Half an hour with Harry, Moody, and Remus, doing defensive magic. Half an hour with Draco, Tonks, and Kingsley, doing counter curses, hexes, and jinxes. Half an hour with Nico and Will, doing the same kind of physical combat training as we’ve been doing so far, and finally, half an hour of duelling. Nothing is out of bounds, the Order will be watching closely to make sure no one actually gets hurt.” Hermione finished firmly. “I know this isn’t what you came to Hogwarts for, and no one will be forced to fight. But currently our primary defence against Voldemort and his Death Eaters is Professor Umbridge, and assuming that there is a possibility Voldemort will come here, we want you to be ready.” 

——

By the time OWLs arrived, the DA was a smooth running machine of well trained, well disciplined fighters, and if a couple of the older kids sometimes snuck in some alcohol at the end and they sat around drinking and telling stories like a family, it only drew them closer, only made them run smoother. 

Fred, George, Sirius, and Remus had clearly been planning something for weeks now, they kept finding a corner in the training room during a water break, and they’d whisper for the whole break, interspersed with loud laughs, then would speak of it to no one. 

As soon as the first rumble sounded, Harry’s heart started pounding, and he glanced around to see that two desks to the right of him, Nico had flipped a knife out of his boot into his hand, and three rows down, Will was fiddling with the anklet that Harry was pretty sure housed his bow and arrows. 

Harry had never seen anything as incredible as the speed at which Nico stood up, spun, and threw his knife directly at the first firework that flew in. It hit the thing dead on, causing it to explode in a shower of blue sparks. Will laughed quietly, and Nico immediately glared at him, until more fireworks followed, and music started playing. 

The room erupted into chaos, and once Nico had decided it wasn’t a threat, he clearly took it as a good enough reason to escape the exams, and grabbed Will’s hand. Will didn’t seem to care about making it out of the room, and just lifted Nico onto a desk and kissed him. 

Harry blinked slowly and turned away as a motherfucking dragon made of fireworks flew through the door. 

Umbridge was completely overwhelmed, she kept firing spells uselessly at the dragon as Fred and George flew in on their brooms, scattering fireworks and confetti everywhere, wolf whistling at the multiple couples who’d decided to add to Umbridge’s wrath by snogging furiously, and cheering on the DA members who’d started firing explosive spells at the dragon just to watch it grow. 

The whole year followed when Fred and George left, and were soon joined by other year groups as they cheered the pair on from the castle grounds, as Fred and George yelled about their new shop on Diagon Alley. 

That was when the vision came, when Harry was surrounded by screaming kids, grinning and cheering along with the rest of them. Suddenly he was back in that place from the dream about Mr Weasley- the Department of Mysteries, Draco had called it. He could see Sirius tied up on a chair, glowing blue orbs everywhere. 

“Crucio!”

——

When Harry collapsed, Draco had no idea what to do. Will and Nico were off snogging somewhere, Hermione and Ron were probably doing the same. “Somebody!” He yelled, probably a bit too loud, voice a bit too raw. “Harry’s collapsed I don’t know what’s happening!” 

And just like that, the DA essentially mobilised. Fred and George directed the other years back to classes and touched down, Seamus and Dean immediately ran off to get Nico, Will, Hermione, and Ron, whilst Ginny and Luna gathered up a couple of the better healers to see if there was anything physically wrong with Harry. 

Draco laid Harry down carefully just in time for him to sit up rod straight. “It’s Sirius, Draco it’s Sirius, in the department of mysteries, somebody is torturing Sirius. Draco we gotta go help him please..” 

Draco nodded and let Harry lean against him. “Of course we will Harry.” Nico, Will, Hermione, and Ron came running out of the hall. “What’s going on?” Will dropped to his knees instantly, hands already glowing as he carded his fingers through Harry’s hair and checked him for injuries. 

Harry relaxed slightly and explained his vision in more detail. “Voldemort has Sirius in the Department if Mysteries, it looked like in the dream about Mr Weasley. There were these.. I don’t know these blue orbs everywhere, and someone shot him with a crucio.” 

Hermione frowned. “Are you sure it was the Department of Mysteries?” 

Harry glared. “Yes I’m sure. Why are we all sitting around, we need to help Sirius!” 

Nico and Will made eye contact over Harry’s head, and Nico nodded at the floor. Will frowned then nodded. “Harry we need to make sure Sirius is actually there.” He said sensibly. “Nico has to go get something, so he can’t take you to Grimmauld Place. Is there any other way to contact him?” 

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know. We can’t owl him that would take too long.” 

Ron sat up straight. “Floo! You don’t have to actually travel through the fire, you can just stick your head through and have a conversation. Only the important teachers have them in their offices, you know, heads of House, Headmaster..” he stopped and looked at Harry. “High Inquisitor, don’t you think?” 

Hermione caught on immediately. “A High Inquisitor who is busy trying to track down Fred and George to enquire about their fireworks and abrupt end to school wouldn’t stop to make sure her office was locked, would she?”

Fred and George grinned at each other. “Well, Freddie.”

“Yes, Georgie?” 

“How would you like to take our dearest High Inquisitor on a little tour of the grounds?” 

“Why I thought you’d never ask.” 

They both took off, scattering confetti everywhere and whooping loudly.

The rest of them stood up quickly and started running towards the school. Ginny paused to grab Fred’s bag, which Harry really didn’t understand until they encountered Peeves on their way. “Peeves! In this bag, I’ve got three portable swamps, four dung bombs, and two tubs of Ink powder, courtesy of Fred and George. I need you to block off all routes to Umbridge’s office with them, and I need you to give her absolute hell, understand me?” 

Peeves took the bag eagerly and starting cackling as he floated away as the other all stared at Ginny, impressed. She shrugged. “If you think I’ve never used the ghost in our attic to prank my brothers, you’re wrong.” 

They digested that for a second before she started shooing them towards the office.

By the time they’d sussed that Sirius wasn’t at Grimmauld Place, that no one seemed to be there, Nico had reappeared, with a wicked four foot sword, similar to the one he usually used, but Harry swore he could make out little hooks along one edge. 

Nico just had time to shove it away and whisper something to Will before Umbridge slammed the door open and had her Inquisitorial Squad grab them. 

——

Hades was surprisingly chill about handing over the sword and letting Nico steak Thanatos for five minutes.

“What d’ya want Neeks?” Thanatos ruffled his hair teasingly. “We can’t reenact a Whole New World again I’ve got some stuff to do in an hour.” 

Nico rolled his eyes. “I need to kill this dude, but his soul’s been split. One of the soul pieces is literally inside this kid.” 

Thanatos hummed for a moment. “Your dad’s sword should do the trick, but I can bless it if you think it’ll help? Any soul that comes into contact with Stygian iron doesn’t get sent down here, it gets trapped in the metal, so if you got the segment that’s in the body,” he paused. “Is this about Tom Riddle?” 

He nodded.

“Yeah, so if you, say, cut of his head with his, don’t give me that look I know you’re a dramatic little bitch, the segment of soul in the body is trapped in the sword, which will effectively eradicated him from existence, but to be on the safe side I would suggest destroying the Horcruxes after the fact. As for the kid..try tapping wherever he got hit with the killing curse with the sword. Very briefly, otherwise you’re gonna kill him, but that should do it.” 

Nico nodded. “Can I just ask,” Thanatos groaned and rolled his eyes. “Go ahead.”

“It’s just..why the fuck did you and dad let Hecate create a spell that allows the caster to literally divide their soul and escape death? Why did she feel the need to make that a thing? Why did you let her?” 

“Neeks..poor, naive, little Neeks.” Nico growled, but Thanatos just laughed. “We didn’t have anything to do with it. You’ve seen how much paperwork one guy who makes Horcruxes has created. We don’t want anything to do with that bullshit. But gods give blessings that allow mortals to be a little less mortal all the time.” 

“Why can’t she just undo it? Surely she can just make it so that spell doesn’t work anymore?” He cocked his head curiously.

“His soul has been split.” Thanatos shrugged. “Sure it would prevent any future headaches, but no matter the method, once a soul is split it can’t be in split.” 

Nico whined dramatically. “Ugh. Guess I better go.”

Thanatos nodded and hugged him, wings wrapping around the pair of them. “Bring your sunshine boy next time. We like him.”

He blushed and rolled his eyes. “He’s got a Christmas present for you, so I’ll probably bring him for the next family dinner.” He pulled back and sheathed the sword. “See you then.”

Thanatos waved. “I got him a present too so make sure he’s there!” 

“You didn’t even get me a present!” 

“Good luck on your quest. Bye!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated, constructive criticism and tips welcome. Come find me on tumblr under the same name to rant about ur ships :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snape still hates Umbridge, Draco does a mean stupendo, and Nico doesn’t have the sense the Gods gave a pigeon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may? Seen a bit rushed? Idk folks but feel free to leave any tips in the comments. Otherwise, enjoy :)

If Will hadn't been so concerned with making sure that Umbridge's gang of teenagers wasn't hurting his friends, he probably would've been laughing at how Harry so clearly didn't notice the way he'd moved protectively in front of Draco. Even Will and Nico didn't do that kind of shit anymore. Sure Nico used to try and get in the way of Will and danger, but once he'd seen Will take out an entire army after Apollo had briefly explained his Plague sphere of power in Will's head, Nico now liked to sit back and watch Will work. To be fair, the Plague powers were pretty damn cool, even if a few campers who hadn’t been around for the Battle of Manhattan tried to give him shit for it.

Umbridge had started ranting, seemingly genuinely unstable. After she'd driven herself purple with rage, which was fairly impressive, the way she egged herself on so thoroughly, she'd called in Snape, who arrived looking already pissed off. “Veritaserum, Professor?" She asked in what Will was sure was supposed to be a sweet tone.

He sniffed disdainfully. "There isn't any left. You've used my entire stock of it."

"We'll surely you can just brew up some more?" The purple intensified.

"Professor-"

"High Inquisitor!"

Snape sighed painfully. "Of course. My mistake. High Inquisitor, Veritaserum requires an entire lunar cycle to make. Unless you plan to keep these children here for that period of time, I cannot be of any help."

"Padfoot!" Harry yelled out of nowhere, like it was a sensible thing to say. "They've got padfoot in the place where it's hidden!"

Snape sneered at him. "Thank you, for that utter _gibberish_ , Potter."

Umbridge whipped around to glare at him from where she'd been staring at Harry like she could look him into submission. "What does he mean?" She yelled hysterically. "What is padfoot? Where is what hidden?"

Snake glanced at her derisively before turning his gaze back to Harry. "No idea." He sniffed then turned and left, cloak flaring dramatically before he slammed the door shut.

"Well," Umbridge began, shakily, but not like she was scared, more like she'd completely and utterly lost the plot. "There are other ways to get information from you, Mr Potter. A cruciatus curse, I think, will do nicely."

Hermione blanched, and Draco subtly drew his wand. "But that's illegal!" Hermione yelled.

Umbridge chuckled. Will couldn't help but liken it to Octavian's mad laugh. "What Cornelius doesn't know," she simpered. "Won't hurt him." She put the picture of the man in question face down on her desk, and drew her wand.

"It's in the forest!" Ginny blurted, and Umbridge lowered her wand. "What was that, Miss Weasley?"

"I didn't want to say anything, Hagrid swore Luna to secrecy and she only told me because we were looking for the thestrals, and I don't want to betray her trust, but it's in the Forest!"

Ron and Hermione made eye contact, like they knew what she was talking about. "Ginny..don't you think..Hagrid wouldn't want you to tell her.."

Ginny shook her head firmly. "Dumbledore's secret weapon is in the forest. Hagrid showed Luna, and maybe Ron and Hermione, but he didn't want to stress anyone else about it."

Umbridge's lit up with a gleam that could only be described as completely maniacal. "Take me to it, or I will return to my original plan."

Ginny nodded and turned to Luna. "You have to let her come with me though. Only Luna knows where it is."

The girl holding Luna released her, and the pair led Umbridge out of the office. Immediately the room went dark, and there were a series of thumps. By the time the darkness cleared, the Inquisitorial Squad were all in heaps on the floor, Nico looking immensely proud of the lot of them.

"Neeks." Will grinned at him, sniffing and wiping away a fake tear. "They grow up so fast."

Nico nodded, sagging against Will dramatically. "One moment they're struggling through twenty sit ups, next they're incapacitating their attackers. I'm so proud."

Seamus looked between the pair of them and Harry. "How did you make the room go dark?" He challenged. "I've never seen anythin' like it. Room's got a natural light source and everybody had their hands behind their back."

Nico groaned dramatically. "I knew I was gonna fuck this up. Right. Full DA debrief once we go save Sirius? Okay. I'm only saying this once and I need to get permission to say it first."

Really, Will and Nico had decided to tell the whole DA almost a whole month ago, but Hades and Hecate had been reluctant to give them permission, and then they'd needed a reasonable excuse to bring it up, but it was nice to make them curious, and they couldn't be bothered to run through it more than once.

Seamus eyed them suspiciously, but acquiesced as soon as Dean laid a hand on his shoulder. _Oh_. That was new. Gods be damned. 

They made their way down to the castle grounds, gathering DA members as they went. Just as they reached Fred and George, Ginny and Luna came running over.

"Well." Ginny was grinning proudly. "The bitch may well be dead, but she's sure as shit not our problem anymore." They all cheered, Fred and George high fiving her.

Harry moves to the front of them all. "What about Sirius?"

Nico raised a hand. "I can get us all to the Department of Mysteries, if nobody asks any questions about the means of transpiration until the debrief."

Will raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure, baby? That's a big 'ole jump, especially with so many people."

Nico shrugged slightly, and nodded. "You've got unicorn draught, right?" Will nodded. "Well if you're one of the people holding my hand, do a bit of the whole light stuff, make sure I don't disintegrate into the shadows on a molecular level. I'll be fine."

Will sighed softly, and nodded. "Okay sweetheart." He turned to face the crowd of wizards. "Everybody form a circle. Make sure everybody is connected. No questions until we're back, and in our training room, okay? It's a long explanation."

The kids formed a circle, grumbling quietly but not outright saying anything. Nico dragged them through the shadows to the Department Of Mysteries. Will was pretty sure he saw at least ten kids, including Colin Creevy and Padma Latil, stumble off to throw up, or at least groan dramatically and clutch their stomachs.

Nico was a bit paler than usual, looking more like he had when he was actually fifteen than he had in a while, but otherwise he looked fine. "Uncle Thanny gave me his blessing too when I got my dad's sword." He explained quietly.

Will nodded, but still weaved a ray of light towards them to make sure Nico wasn't transparent at all. The light bending was still new to him. Apollo seemed to have heaped powers into Will, rare ones too, considering he couldn't aim for shit, or do anything with a musical instrument, which were much more common than any of his powers. Even before the blessings after the Giant War, Will had been an extraordinarily powerful healer. Apollo had explained that the Plague aspect had always been there, but he'd never wanted Will to suffer the torment that might follow him if that got unleashed, and since it seemed dormant, he'd been content to leave it that way. The light bending, however, was part of the blessing, and Will was still learning how to do it.

Then, once he'd finally checked Nico over and made sure all the kids throwing up were fine, it hit him. "Harry." He probably sounded frantic, but fuck it, it felt so _strong._

"Harry, those glass things you saw in your vision," he stumbled his way over to Harry. "Were they a sort of milky grey blue, orbs, slightly chattering in the background?"

Harry looked at him weirdly but nodded. "Yeah, exactly like that."

"Aw fuck." Will groaned. "Neeks, you're gonna hate this."

"What? Why? Spasimante, what's up?" Nico took his hand, rubbing his thumb on the back of Will's hand soothingly.

"It's prophecies. The orbs. They contain prophecies. We have a few in the Apollo cabin, and we can all sense them. What you're describing is probably somewhere near every prophecy ever spoken."

Nico shuddered. "Oh fuck this guy. I'm gonna enjoy reaping his soul so goddamn much. I can't believe he's making me stand in a room of prophecies."

Harry blinked. "You're going to what?"

"I'm gonna reap his soul. I've got a blade intended for Hades, blessed by Thanatos, specifically for this purpose." He shrugged. "It's more complicated than just stabbing him, but once I've stabbed him, we've just gotta find a few objects and stab them."

Harry stared at him, and Will left them to start corralling everyone. Hermione dragged him over to the set of doors almost immediately. "We don't know which door to go through, and I overheard you saying to Harry that you could sense whatever was in Harry's vision."

Will nodded slowly. "Everybody shut up!" He yelled, waiting for silence before he put a hand to each door before humming. "This one." He declared after a minute. "It's through this one."

Nico struggled through the crowd to the front. "Everybody in..three lines. Long range weaponry on the left, mid range in the middle, short range on the right."

He started pulling weapons and the appropriate armour out of the shadows and handing them out. Once everybody was fully armed, he looked at Will, who nodded. They both aged up, wincing as everybody started yelling.

Will held his arms up for quiet. "We'll explain everything after, I promise.” They both started changing into proper armour. “It's more important that we're in top physical form for this fight than that we keep this secret."

Nico then pulled his father's sword out of the sheath, grinning darkly when everyone flinched back from it. "Now, are we gonna kill Voldemort or what?”

The crowd of wizards cheered, and Will opened the door.

——

The plan, as loose as it was, worked spectacularly. Although the wizards didn't know, Nico used the shadows to disguise everyone but Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Draco. As the four of them started searching the room for Sirius, everybody else fanned out. The long range fighters; archers and whatnot, kept to the back, whilst the mid and short range fighters got in position to spring onto the death eaters they all knew would show up.

Nico sensed the weird presence of death as soon as they entered the room, but he didn't have time to investigate it until the first death eater had shown up, at which point he snuck off to take care of it.

He didn't even try to shield the massive veil he found, instead fell to his knees and prayed to his father. After a moment the veil flickered, before the ethereal light it had been exuding flickered out.

By the time he got back, the fighting was already underway, but it was controlled. Fighters were only leaving the shadows when a new one was needed, not risking adding too much to the kill box so as to keep the archer’s chances higher.

The death eaters were yelling and screaming about things that didn’t mean a damn thing to Nico, but he joined the fray anyways, grinning like an absolute maniac. 

——

The whole fight was a godsbedamned clusterfuck.

It started with Lucious Malfoy threatening them, and Draco hitting him with such a hard stupendo that Bellatrix genuinely thought he'd stopped the man's heart. Then there was the whole deal with the prophecy, "give it to me Potter, our lord needs it.", and then the order showed up, and Harry had been so sure that Sirius would die, when Bellatrix had fired the killing curse at him. But then Nico had stuck his sword in front of it, and his blade had flared a vicious, poisonous green, and in the moment of distraction, Will had efficiently, but rather mercilessly if you asked Harry, snuck up behind her and snapped her neck. It had been anti climactic, really. One moment, he was sure she'd killed Sirius, was ready to torture and kill her until she had felt every ounce of pain he was feeling. The next, she was in a heap on the floor, Will Solace stood behind her, glowing like an avenging angel.

Then Voldemort had arrived.

He'd been taunting, throwing spells at Harry like they took no power at all. Then Dumbledore had appeared out of fucking nowhere, and they'd started duking it out for real. Until, of course, Nico and Will got sick of waiting around, and casually just walked in between the two.

"Okay okay." Nico held his hands up, speaking loud and slow, as though Voldemort and Dumbledore were primary school children, not the two most powerful wizards of their age. "Your light shows are both very pretty, boys, but you," he pointed at Voldemort. "Need to die, and I can't marry my fiancé until you have died, so I plan to get on with that fairly quickly."

Will face palmed loudly, then nodded, as though he'd known Nico was going to say something like that. "Nico, darlin', light of my fuckin' life. You have to stop antagonising people before you fight them."

Nico frowned. "I antagonised Kronos, and then we won, and I didn't get to antagonise Gaia, but Leo did, and we won. I even got in a snappy one liner with Minos before sending him downstairs. The evidence suggests that antagonising my enemies actually increased my chances of winning. I didn't sass Tartarus's forces, and I sure as shit lost to them."

"Did you just prove by example and counter example that it's smart and helpful to piss of your enemies? I think you just made Percy and Annabeth proud of you simultaneously."

Nico rolled his eyes, Voldemort clearly getting pissed off behind him. "Percy has essentially adopted me, alongside Jason, every time I make a gay joke or flirt with you, they're proud of me, and Annabeth has verbally acknowledged that I'm one of, if not the the smartest, non Athena or Hephaestus demigods she knows."

Will contemplated that for a second. "That's fair. Anyways, I'm proud of you, so that's all that matters."

Voldemort seemed to finally get over his absolute shock at having two random twenty year olds show up and flirt in front of him. "Who are you?" He hissed. "I will defeat you as well if I must. You will not stand in the way of me and victory. I will be victorious."

Nico drew the creepy nightmare sword from where he'd sheathed it on his back when they'd been watching Dumbledore and Voldemort fight.

"I think the fuck not." He announced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, constructive criticism welcome. Come find me on tumblr under the same name :)


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will snaps somebody’s neck, and Nico thinks it’s the hottest thing ever, Drarry finally happens, and Voldemort gets merked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I?? Tried to write some actual action. I hope it’s all good. There’s a lot of description. I’m very sorry about that but I kinda like it??

If you’d told Harry three hours ago that he was going to get to sit, in a protective bubble formed by Dumbledore, watching one of the most powerful wizards alive facing possibly the most powerful being on earth, he would’ve brought popcorn, because this was the most incredible thing he’d ever seen.

Once Will had managed to stop Nico just outright insulting and taunting Voldemort, he’d told Nico that he wouldn’t marry him if he were dead so he better goddamn win, then made his way over to sit with the rest of them.

“Hey,” Ron whispered. “Why aren’t you fighting as well?”

Will smiled indulgently. “Nico and his two cousins are not only the three most powerful people I’ve ever met asides their fathers, they’re also the three best swordsmen. If I joined in I’d just be in the way.”

“Are we ever going to meet these mysterious cousins?” Hermione asked, keeping an eye on where Voldemort and Nico were circling each other.

“Sure if you want.” Will shrugged. “You’d have to come forward into the future with us, but Hades and Hecate have promised to find a way to let you all do it. There’s Jason, that’s the son of Jupiter, he’s Nico’s best friend, they’re super rich, and Percy, the son of Poseidon, who’s kind of like an older brother to Nico. They’ve had their issues, but they’re close.”

“Shhh.” Harry muttered, watching in awe as Nico finally stopped toying with Voldemort and unsheathed the sword from his father. It sucked light out of the room, and even Dumbledore was watching it wearily.

Voldemort simply laughed. “You think you can defeat me with something as muggle and infantile as a sword?”

The shadows started crawling up Nico’s legs. “Right, well. I’m assuming you think your second was pretty powerful right? Bellatrix or whatever? Because my fiancé fucking snapped her neck, the hottest thing ever by the way, you’re getting in the way of his victory blowjob, which didn’t even involve a sword just his hands and now she’s dead as shit so I don’t know where you’re coming from.”

Voldemort snarled. “I will kill you and then your fiancé, and then every single wizard that you’ve chosen to involve in your life. I’ll do it slowly, meticulously, and I’ll enjoy every second of it. I will avenge Bellatrix.”

Nico laughed sharply. It was brittle and dangerous, nothing like the full belly laughs that Harry was used to. “You’ve caused me and mine so much trouble, Tom, and you’re not even a part of my world. There is a patch waiting for you in Punishment, the torture designed specifically by me, my father, and my uncle. Not least because of the damage here, but simply because of the amount of paperwork you’ve caused us. Do you understand what that means?”

Voldemort had gone white, eyes bright red. He shot a spell at Nico, but Nico simply absorbed it with his sword like before. “You can’t possibly..no..”

“It means that despite not being some tricky demigod upstart like my cousins, despite not being significant in any way to anybody asides these wizards, you’ve managed to piss off the Lord of the Dead, his second, Death personified, and his son, me. You’ve annoyed us so much, that we sat around the living room table, and planned exactly what we wanted to do to you. You should be grateful. Never has another mortal gotten so much attention.” Cracks started appearing in the stone, radiating out from Nico’s feet, and Harry half expected fire or skeletons to emerge, seeing as that’s what had happened last time Nico had been this angry.

The colour had started to leech from Voldemort’s skin, and Harry couldn’t tell if it was because the guy was terrified of Nico, which was fully understandable, the guy had a crown of obsidian resting on his brow, and Harry was sure he could make out a silhouette of wings in his shadow, or if it was something Nico was doing - tapping at his life force. Out of the cracks, plants started to spring forth, belladonna wrapping around Voldemort’s ankle, heather eating up any sparks of magic that fell to the floor greedily.

“What is this?” Voldemort hissed. “You have mentioned your father, he has no control over the living, there are no spells for this kind of thing?” He was tugging at the plants around him, casting spells to cut them away.

Nico laughed that same awful laugh. “My step mother. I’m sure I don’t need to invoke her name. We’ve been getting along rather well lately.” Harry had a sudden realisation that this was why Dumbledore had put up barriers instead of staying in the fight. If Nico chose to, he could bring the wizarding world to its knees, and Will was the only person here with a hope of stopping him. A glance at Will showed that he wouldn’t even try. He was smiling this bloodthirsty little grin, a shadow across his temple in the shape of the obsidian circlet on Nico’s brow, like if he wished it, Will would have one to match. Harry had never fully felt the strength of his new friends, of their raw power and warrior’s attitude, but he knew now, knew down to his bones, that the wizarding world wouldn’t withstand these two, if they so chose to destroy it.

Voldemort seemed to rally himself in spite of the fact that he’d obviously met his match, and dived forward after hacking his way through the vines curling up his legs. Blinding green light shot from his wand in a spell Harry had only ever seen twice. In the graveyard, when Cedric Diggory has died, and in every dream he’d ever had about the night his parents had died.

The killing curse.

Then, in a movement so quick Harry couldn’t properly track it, Nico practically danced through the shadows so he was stood behind Voldemort, sword to his throat, tendrils of shadows wrapped around his limbs, dark vapours rising off him like he was part shadow himself. Pure power was rolling off him in waves. “Tell me where the horcruxes are.” He murmured, soft enough to be deeply terrifying, but loud enough for everyone to hear. Dumbledore looked uneasy, and like he was one minute away from getting involved.

“Never!”

“Look man, I’m gonna find them with or without you telling me where they are, but it would sure save me some time and effort if you would just give me a list of locations.”

“You’ll never find them. Especially not the last one.” Voldemort cackled.

“Dude. I know what they all are. I know how to get rid of them. I just don’t want to waste a fucktonne of energy trying to lock onto your soul signature, which I can do.”

“You’re lying.” Voldemort protested weakly, his skin bleeding to a pasty grey colour as the contact with Nico’s sword and the shadows sapping his strength, little red sparks crackling every so often.

“Ugh, time up I guess.” Nico slit his throat quickly, the body a blueish grey by the time it hit the ground. He looked up, making eye contact with an annoyed Dumbledore for a second before looking at Harry. “It’s okay, mio figlio. The fighting’s done.”

——

It was..anticlimactic, for sure, seeing Voldemort ended because Nico stuck a sword in his throat, but a relief too. Harry had been told since he was eleven that this guy was his destiny, that he was supposed to overcome insurmountable evil, and now someone - an actual adult with experience - had shown up and killed the Big Bad for him. The kids around him were restless, whispering and fidgeting, some looking vaguely sick, others relieved like Harry, and a few looking in awe. Then, in unison, they began clapping, and soon it had escalated into a full blown cheer. Harry could see Seamus and Dean raising Nico onto their shoulders as they all paraded about, an outwards expression of relief and aw and pure fucking joy.

After a while, once it had all calmed down a little, and Nico was back on solid ground, but still walking around to talk to people, Harry started to hear arguing. He turned to see Will demanding that Dumbledore lower the barriers.

“With all due respect sir, that is my fiancé. We were brought here to do exactly this, just because we didn’t force Harry, a fifteen year old, to suffer extensively and fight this guy, doesn’t mean that what Nico did was barbaric or cruel. Now either I can sap your mana and lower the barriers myself, or you can do them nice and quick.”

“Mr Solace.” Dumbledore began, slowly, like he was trying to keep Will calm. “I have just witnessed someone I have protection murder someone. As much as I understand that this was for the ministry, I can’t stand by and allow this sort of crime.”

Harry had never seen Will so angry, the guy was glowing, but not in the gentle, warm way he usually glowed, like an early evening sun, this was pure rage, blinding and painfully hot. “You cannot invite two of the most powerful demigods alive to sort out your mess, and then get snippy when it doesn’t turn out how you wanted it to. Voldemort is dead, no one else is at risk. Of course it was violent, and a bit messy. You didn’t invite diplomats or negotiators, you invited warriors. Fucking deal with it.”

Dumbledore sighed and waved his hand, and the air shimmered slightly. Will immediately ran over to Nico, kissing his temple then checking him over for injuries. Nico waved Harry over, and he walked over slowly.

“Thanks...for killing him.” Harry murmured quietly. “I didn’t want to, fight a war I mean.”

Nico nodded. “This was always the plan. We need to have a proper conversation about the next couple of steps, because Voldemort did some weird shit. Are you okay to talk now, or do you want to wait til after the debrief and stuff?”

Harry shrugged. “Now is as good a time as any.”

“Do you know what a Horcrux is, first of all?” Nico watched him carefully.

“I’ve not a clue. What is it?”

“It’s like..soul storage.” Nico wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “You have to kill someone with the intention to split your soul, and then you focus on an object to store the shard. It’s completely evil, and it’s really annoying to us lot doing the paperwork downstairs. Voldemort split his soul eight times. Remember the diary that you and Ron told me about?”

Harry nodded. “The one connected to Tom riddle?”

“Yeah exactly. That was the first horcrux. The only way to properly kill Voldemort, without him coming back the way he did last year, is to destroy the horcruxes. This sword is specifically designed to do that sort of thing. Me and Will, we’re gonna stick around for a few months; probably to the end of the school year. We’re gonna hunt them down. I promise you, Harry, this it then end for you. You can be a kid, you can spend your holidays in the future with us, and you can come back here, just like Draco does, but Voldemort is never going to endanger you again.”

Harry gave that a moment to sink in. Merlin, the things Voldemort would do, had done, to achieve immortality.. “so how does this involve me?”

“Harry..” Will rested a hand on Harry’s shoulder, next to Nico’s arm. “You’re the final horcrux.”

“What?” He looked up at them both. “I have to die?”

“I’m afraid so.” Dumbledore said from behind them. Harry whipped around to look at him. Dumbledore looked sad, and fifty years older than he had arguing with Will. “I don’t know any way around it. I’d hoped for you to be older when I broke the news. To give me time, I suppose, to-“

“Actually, no.” Nico interrupted. “By my father, did you really think we were just going to half-ass this whole thing? We found a way around it. This sword should be able to remove the soul shard without hurting you too badly. Will will be on hand to make sure you don’t get any...I don’t know..permanent psychological damage?” Harry looked at him, panicked. You’ll be fine.” Nico waved a hand. “I’ve got heaps of psychological damage, and I just killed the bad guy.”

Will laughed. “There are definitely better markers of not being a complete lunatic but okay baby.” He looked at Harry, face as soft and open as it always was. “If we kill the other horcruxes, Voldemort will likely be too weak to ever return. We don’t truly have to remove the shard in you, it’s just a precaution, and one we’re willing not to take if you don’t want to.”

Harry shook his head. “I’ll do it. Just..if I might become a nutter, there’s something I need to do first.”

“Of course, bambino.” Nico hugged him close, pressing a kiss to his temple. “Don’t break our dragon’s heart, okay?”

Harry blushed furiously. “How did you know?”

Nico tutted. “I’m his dad. I’m supposed to know these things.”

Will smiled brightly and ruffled his hair. “He’s over there Harry. Go sweep him off his feet.”

Harry looked over to where he’d been sat earlier. As promised, Draco was watching, hair silky and the colour of sun bleached corn, nothing like the sleek white monstrosity it had been the last few years, eyes all sparkly the way they got before he accidentally fried a training dummy, or on occasion, Nico.

“Do you really think-“ he glanced back at Will and Nico, but they were leaning against each other and grinning like the proud parents that Harry supposed they were. They made shooing gestures, and he finally took the hint.

“H-Hey, Draco.” He mumbled, once he’d managed to navigate through the milling wizards to get to him.

“Harry!” Draco whirled around to face him, expression full of concern. “Are you okay? I heard dad fighting with Dumbledore is everything alright? You looked kind of panicked is-“

Harry only registered his conscious muttering fuck it a second after he’d grabbed Draco’s jumper and tugged him close. “I’m gonna kiss you now.” He said after a moment. “Is that okay?”

Draco answered for him by pressing his lips against Harry. “Is this gonna be a thing now?”

“If...” Harry blushed darkly. “If that’s okay?”

“I’ve been waiting all year for you to notice, of course it’s okay.” Draco kissed him again, just as chaste, but a little more familiar, before Harry deepened it slightly. Until, of course, Seamus wolf whistled and yelled, “fucking finally you blind gits!”

Harry only barely caught Will’s response, a sharp; “Seamus you and Dean have been pining since long before I met you, and you only kissed him two weeks ago give them a break.”

He had no idea if that was true but it seemed to shut Seamus up enough for him to kiss Draco again. “Why didn’t we do this earlier?” He asked once he’d finally pulled back a bit.

Draco merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “Because somehow you’ve been too busy forming an elite militia to notice that I was flirting?”

“You were flirting?”

Draco thudded his forehead against Harry’s collarbone. “You’re lucky you’re cute. So lucky.”

——

Nico was prepared for the mother of all debriefings, but he wasn’t prepared for Dumbledore to start going off on one about violence and how you can’t just kill people, when he’d literally been prepared to sacrifice Harry to get this whole thing over.

“Albus, Professor Dumbledore, whatever you want me to call you. We’re not here by your request.” Will interrupted Dumbledore sharply. “I appreciate that you likely didn’t want to see a large portion of your students watching Nico kill Voldemort, but with your plans, war was inevitable, and they would’ve witnessed the death of their friends and family instead.”

Nico was still kinda riding on the high of watching Will snap Bellatrix Lestrange’s neck, so he let Will handle the whole thing, fingers laced with Will’s.

“I..I suppose.” Dumbledore acquiesced after a minute. “I don’t appreciate or understand your methods, but I’m glad Voldemort is dead and that the children don’t have to witness anything worse.”

He tugged on Will’s arm gently, leaning against him when Will ended the conversation with Dumbledore and looked at him questioningly. **“Darling, I cant jump everyone back to Hogwarts. We’re gonna have to go back using more official routes.”**

“ **One of the kids mentioned travelling by Flu.”** Will responded. “‘We’ll go that way. How’re you feeling after all that.”

Nico grinned at him. “‘Like I wasn’t kidding about the celebratory blowjob.”’ He teased, just to watch Will turn pink.

——

It took hours to get all of the kids in the training room at Hogwarts, but it was still pretty quick, considering their tempestuous run in with Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, the rigorous checks that Madame Pompfrey sat them all through, and it took a good hour alone just to get everyone to sit down and shut up long enough to get any burns and cuts from spells treated.

Eventually though, with everyone sat in the training room, watching Nico and Will expectantly, Nico knew they couldn’t put it off any longer. He glanced at Will, took a deep breath, then looked back out at the room. This was going to be okay. He’d fought with these kids, as well as the order, he’d trained with them, made them stronger and allowed them to make him stronger in return. They’d watched him kill a man, and had only congratulated him after.

It was going to be fine.

Draco nodded encouragingly from the corner, Harry and Ron giving him a thumbs up, while Hermione smiled brightly.

He breathed out shakily.

“Who’s heard of the Greek Gods and Goddesses?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos appreciated as always, constructive criticism is welcome. Come find me on tumblr under the same name :)


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The big reveal, and I imply that Hades, Persephone, and Maria Di Angelo had a healthy and long term polyamorous relationship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know any corrections in the comments, I wrote this in two hours and I’m a bit drunk, so let me know where I’ve fucked up :)

After a moment of silence as everyone registered the seeming non-sequitur, a couple of kids raised their hands, as did a few of the order members.

Nico sighed dramatically at the small number, and Will smiled fondly at him, but really, he shared the sentiment. Not only would they have to explain that the myths were real, they’d have to explain the actual myths themselves. 

“Well,” Nico began, conjuring a sofa out of the shadows. As usual he waited for Will to sit down before slumping against him. “It all starts with these primordial Gods, right? So there’s Ouranos, god of the sky, and Gaia, goddess of the earth. And they’re in love, okay? So they have these kids, the titans. Kronos, Rhea, that kind of thing, and Kronos and the other titans take over earth, with the help of Gaia, who instructs them to chop Ouranos into little pieces, which they do. When the blood of Ouranos interacts with Gaia, it makes these other children, called the giants, but more on them later.” He motioned for Will to take over.

“So Kronos and Rhea, who were basically the king and queen of the titans, they had six children. Now some prophecy had declared that Kronos would be overthrown by his children, in the same way he and his brethren had overthrown their father. So when his first child, Hades, or Aidoneus, was born, he ate him. He did the same for the next four children, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. Then he has the sixth child, Zeus.” As he spoke, he got the light to cast shadows along the walls which played out a kind of play of what they were describing. 

Nico picked up the story. “Now Rhea decides that she’s sick of watching Kronos eat her kids, so she hides Zeus away. It’s a really long story but eventually Zeus feeds Kronos this mixture of mustard and wine, and gets him to disgorge the other five, who’d been growing, completely in digested in Kronos’ stomach. The six siblings, the gods, fought Kronos and the other titans and eventually defeated them. They began ruling. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades drew lots to declare realms. Zeus took the sky and Olympus, Poseidon took the sea, and Hades took the underworld, which is where the dead go. Any questions so far?”

Luna Lovegood raised a hand. “You said the underworld is where the dead go, as though it really exists?” 

Nico blinked at her. “Well, yeah. But we’re getting to that.” 

Some Hufflepuff raised their hand. “If the underworld is real, how come the ghosts have never told any of us about it?” 

Nico’s eyes lit up. “You’re a smart one aren’t you? Well basically, the underworld looks to the dead like whatever they believe in. A Christian would see heaven, hell, purgatory, whatever they’re headed for, whilst we’d direct a person of Hindu or Buddhist faith to rebirth, until they’d reached Elysium for the third time. What they see as Nirvana is actually the isle of the blest.” 

“If everyone sees what they believe in, how do you know it’s not actually something else?” 

Will chucked. “I was born and raised a Texan catholic. I go to the underworld every month for family dinner. I promise you, I do not see God, or Jesus, or Satan. Unless, of course, Nico’s grandmother is visiting, in which case it could be argued that I see Satan.” 

Nico sniggered, “oh my god Solace. Priceless. Dad is gonna be so proud of you when I tell him that. He might like you even more than Jay and his dad jokes.” 

“So anyways.” Will interceded. “Zeus married Hera, and they had a child, Ares, and technically Hephaestus, although actually Hephaestus was born entirely of Hera’s rage, because she caught him cheating on her. He did that quite a lot, and had several other children by several other women, namely Apollo and Artemis, Athena, Hermes, and Dionysus. Poseidon married a sea nymph called Amphitrite, and had kids with her and without her, Theseus, Triton, Atlas, and Pegasus, to name a few. Demeter had a child with Zeus, a goddess called Persephone, who married Hades, which is a bit of a long and completed story that changes depending on who tells it, but they have two children, Zagreus, and Macaria. Demeter has other children, Despoina, Arion, etcetera. Then Hestia had no children, she’s the first maiden goddess. Finally, when Ouranos’ blood made contact with sea foam, another goddess was born, Aphrodite.”

Nico grumbled good naturedly at the mention of his step mother, but let it slide. “They formed the council of Olympians, which originally consisted of Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Artemis, Apollo, Hephaestus, Athena, Poseidon Hermes, Aphrodite, and Ares. Then Dionysus got made into a god, and Hestia stood down.”

Seamus raised his hand. “What about Hades? And Persephone? Why aren’t they on the council?” 

Nico laughed brightly. “You’re my new favourite Seamus. Draco, Solace, cough the fuck up.” He held both hands out, and Will and Draco both groaned, handing him a couple drachma. 

“Zeus is a bastard,” he paused as thunder rumbled threateningly. “And Hades is now acknowledged a bit more. But basically Zeus thought Hades would try and overthrow him because Hades was unhappy with his lot. Any other questions before we move on?” 

Some third year put their hand up. “Why did Hestia step down to let Dionysus become an Olympian?”

Will sighed slowly. “Hestia is the goddess of the hearth, of home. She’s a very peaceful goddess. Dionysus had invented something that pleased a hell of a lot of mortals, and introduced something that had no god in charge of it. It was an act of peacekeeping.”

After a minute where no one else put their hand up, Nico continued. “So gods are a bunch of unfaithful dicks. And when they have children with mortals, those offspring are called demigods-“

“Isn’t that what you and Will have referred to yourselves as?” Someone called out.

“Shhh, I’m getting there.” Nico responded. “And demigods tends to be heroes. To be fair, it’s not our choice, it’s mainly because the gods, due to some divine laws, can’t interfere directly on earth. So they do it through us.”

“Why did you mention the giants, earlier, like you were gonna get back to them?” A ravenclaw asked loudly.

“Well. This next bit requires you all to have a fairly fluid grip of how time works. Me and Will, we’re from the future. And the last, I guess.”

“What?” 

“Well, I was born in 1932. But we were sent back from 2019. But anyways,” he spoke over all the kids that started muttering restlessly. “In 2006, a demigod called Percy Jackson was accused of stealing Zeus’ lighting bolt. This was the first in a whole chain of events that led to the rising of the Titan, Kronos. We fought him, and we sent him back to Tartarus. Then Percy and my best friend, Jason Grace, got switched into each other’s lives. Percy is the son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, but Jason is the son of Jupiter, the Roman god of the skies. Both the Greek and Roman demigods have camps, Camp Half Blood, for the Greeks, and Camp Jupiter, for the Romans. The point of switching Percy and Jay was to combine the Greek and Roman forces, with the help of yours truly, and my half sister.”

Nico took a breath, and Will took over. “This switch was, just like the accusations against Percy, the first of many things that led to the rise of the Giants, and in turn, Gaia. Again, these guys fought them, and won. Nico, Percy, and a daughter of Athena, Annabeth, the three of them went through Tartarus. Nico by himself, to try close the doors of death, and Percy and Annabeth went through together after Annabeth fought Arachne, her mother’s enemy.” 

There was complete silence as everyone took that in, but eventually Cho Chang raised her hand. “So who’s your parents? Any proof?”

Nico yawned. “I’m the son of Hades. Isn’t it obvious?” He waved a hand and the room was cast into complete darkness. 

Will laughed. “Apollo.” He started glowing softly before Nico allowed the light back. 

“What kind of things have you done?” Zachariah Smith yelled. “You’ve mentioned Tartarus, surely if you’re heroes, you’ve got titles?”

Nico made a pathetic whimpering sound. “Shut your whore mouth about titles, Zach. Um, let me think. I’m the son of Hades, the Ghost King, heir apparent to the Underworld, does best friend and taxi to the current Pontificus Maximus count? I’m the most powerful son of Hades in..well..ever, and I’m the only one to receive the blessing of Persephone. I’m technically a hero of Olympus but they like to reserve that for the seven of the prophecy, and I just helped those guys I wasn’t one of them. The Praetor of New Rome and quite possibly the most badass woman alive considers me an honorary brother, which I think is much more important than any of this other bullshit. I carried the Athena Parthenon from Greek to New York, which, I don’t know how impressive that sounds to you, but I basically strapped myself, a girl and a half goat guy to my back, and carried us through the shadows for eight thousand kilometres whilst dissolving into the shadows on a molecular level.”

Will frowned. “If you don’t think it’s impressive, I’m the poor guy who had to stop him completely dissolving into the shadows, I promise you it’s really hard. As for titles for me..well..um.. I’m the head healer at camp half blood, and according to Nico’s sister, the praetor in New Rome, I’m the most respected official regarding demigod medicine alive. I’m the first child of Apollo in just under one thousand years to carry the ability to create and spread Plagues, and according to my dad I’m the most powerful healer he’s created in a few centuries. I also do a really mean supersonic whistle and bend light but they’re not titles they’re just cool.” 

The wizards took a while to take this in, before Sirius walked over. “Me and Draco are also demigods.” He declared loudly. “And Remus Lupin is my motherfuckin’ boyfriend, so hah, I win.” 

Remus was face palming with the rest of the order, as attention turned to Sirius and Draco. 

“Sirius Black? Didn’t you kill loads of people?” Colin Creevy yelped. 

“What? No. I was framed by Peter Pettigrew. The pardon and stuff is in the works with the ministry right now.” 

“Who’re yours and Draco’s godly parents?”

“Well, dear, I’ll let Draco reveals his own secrets, but my mother is Hecate.” 

“Hecate?” 

“The goddess of magic, and crossroads. That sort of thing.” Sirius explain magnanimously, sitting cross legged in front of the sofa Nico and Will were on. 

Draco waved shyly after perching on the arm of the sofa. “My father is Zeus, but my dads are these guys. They adopted me.” 

Obviously that set off a whole new round of questions about their ages, until Will finally shushed them.

“I’m twenty one, and Nico is eighty seven. Or twenty. Whichever way you like to look at it. But Draco is thirteen, and demigods often die young, so we’re adopting him.”

——

It took hours to finish answering questions. Hours of displaying powers to disbelieving kids and adults, and explaining their past and about their parents. 

Eventually Nico had gotten sick of the questioning, and just asked if anyone wanted to meet his dad. They’d all said yes, so he’d just stood up. 

“Hades!!” He yelled, and as Will expected, the shadows condensed in front of Nico for a moment before dissipating again to reveal Hades and Persephone. 

Nico grinned. “‘Mom! How are you? How’s grandma? Am I allowed to call her that? Will she turn me into a corn plant again?” He moved forward to hug the pair of them, and Will followed suit. 

“Son, if you don’t have a good reason for this I swear to Zeus I’m banning you from bringing up anything that Grace boy mentions for two months.” 

Nico pouted. “But dad...you love Jay’s dad jokes. He tells me them just so I’ll tell you. Do you know how sat he’ll be if I can’t relay his jokes to you? Do you want to deal with Uncle Zeus after our precious Jaybird whined to his statue for a month?”

Hades relented easily. “Fine. Anyways. Why are we here? We were having a lovely time in Tasmania before you interrupted.” 

“I hope you weren’t..” Nico trailed off as Persephone started laughing evilly.

“Aw..Nicky..you know your dad had to have sex with your mama to make you..I didn’t but I guess we all do things we don’t need to..” she trailed off, expression nostalgic.

Nico blanched. “Dad you had a threesome with mio mama and mom?” 

“Nico..son..how many other demigods do you know who’re full blood siblings? Not including the Graces, that doesn’t count. Besides I’m well known for being the only faithful one of my brothers. That’s true. Of course ‘Seph was involved.”

“Besides,” Persephone added. “It wasn’t just a threesome. We were together for four years, the three of us. Your mother really was beautiful Nico. I can see where you get it from.” She grinned slyly. 

“Nope. Go away. La la la la.” Nico stuck his fingers in his ears and walked off to sit with Draco. Hades looked to Will. “What happened? Why are we here?”

Will managed to stop laughing after a long minute. “We just told the wizards everything, and Nico decided the best way to finish it off was to introduce them to a god.” He motioned to the rows of wizards watching them in awe, especially the order, who could sense more clearly the power rolling off Hades and Persephone. 

Hades wrinkled his nose delicately. “Nico.” He called. Nico perked up to look at him immediately.

“Yes, dad?”

“Is your fiancé lying to me, or did you really drag me away from a nice holiday with my wife to use me as a party trick?”

Nico paused. “Uh..I also called you here to return your sword? Uncle Thanny said I could use it to remove the soul from Harry but I’d much rather you did it.” He stood up, scuffing his feet nervously. “If that’s okay?” 

“Of course.” Hades smiled. “Sword?” 

Nico handed him it, and everybody’s eyes were immediately drawn to the blue fire that flickered along the blade before Hades sheathed it. 

“Harry Potter?” 

Harry made a quiet squeaking sound before standing up. “Y-Yessir?” 

“My son would like for me to remove the soul shard that Tom Riddle bonded to you. Is that your wish, too?” 

Harry nodded slowly, and made his way to the front of the crowd. Everybody else had gone completely silent. 

Hades redrew the sword, but this time it was a small dagger, simple and short, but it radiated the same fear as the sword had. 

“This may hurt, boy.” He warned.

Hardy nodded, and winced as the blade was pressed against him temple. He collapsed immediately, and Will caught him, but only barely. 

Persephone smiled at him fondly as Hades hugged Nico again and kissed him curls. “You’ll find some plants that are rather useful in curing this sort of thing in your dorm, Will.” She kissed his cheek lightly. “And I should mention, we’re rather fond of you downstairs, but if you’d like to visit me during the spring and summer, with or without Nico, you can always contact me the same way Nico contacted Hades. I feel I could love you as a son as much as I do him, although I promise I had no relations with your mother.” She winked cheekily, and the pair of them disappeared in a whirl of shadows and petals. 

Nico still looked absolutely shocked. “I cannot believe my mama was having a threesome with the king and queen of the dead in the 1930s. Can you imagine?” He was muttering in-between herding kids out of the door, waving goodnight and promising them that they’d answer questions later. 

He turned to Will once everybody had gone asides for Draco, Harry, Hermione, and Ron. “Will, Tesoro, can you believe this?”

Will laughed, lifting Harry in a bridal carry. “Can I, a red blooded pansexual believe that your mother had the hots for both your dad, who, I hate to break it to you Neeks, is hella handsome, and your mom, who is absolutely gorgeous? Can I believe that? No, of course not.” He snarked, mainly to watch Nico’s jaw drop. 

“You think my dad is handsome? And that my mom is gorgeous! William!” 

Will grinned cheekily at him and carried Harry into their dorm. “You look like a carbon copy of your dad if your dad had nicer hair and spent more time in the son. Of course I think he’s hot. I know you think my dad is hot.” 

“That is entirely beside the point!” Nico trailed after him, waving his hands in the air. “Your dad is a, he’s the sun god, he’s supposed to be hot, and b, he makes himself look twenty! All the time! My dad looks at least forty!” 

After he’d placed Harry on the spare bed and found the plants Persephone had mentioned, Will tugged Nico close and smiled at him adoringly. “Greek gods are all supposed to be attractive, and your dad managed to land Persephone, who’s a fertility goddess, of course she’s beautiful. And besides, If you think I won’t think you’re not when you’re forty, you’re totally wrong baby. You’re gonna look like your dad when you’re older. I’m allowed to find that beautiful ain’t I?” 

Nico blushed faintly. “I..I-“ he sighed softly. “I suppose.” 

“Anyways,” Will smirked, and moved out of range. “Your dad is a bit of a DILF.” 

“William Solace!” Nico yelled so loud that Harry shot up, breathing heavily and eyes darting. 

“Ron! Hermione!” He yelled, scrambling back against the headboard. “Draco, Will, Nico.” He panted slightly, the hand that was held tightly by Draco shaking. “I had this awful dream, I was standing by this river, it was polluted so badly, with picture frames and dolls and all sorts-“ Nico motioned for him to get to the point.

“Yeah, sorry, anyway I was stood by this river, and this lady came up to me, and she waved her arms about and I started glowing purple.” 

Nico frowned deeply. “Sounds to me like you’ve been blessed.”

“By who?” Hermione pushed.

“By the goddess of magic herself.” Will replied absently, checking Harry over for injures. “Harry here has been blessed by Hecate.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos always appreciation, constructive criticism welcome. Come find me on tumblr under the same name and leave me a message or an ask xx


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Baby lawyer Draco, Nico wants more kids and for good reason, and I set up piper/Annabeth/Jason/Percy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve decided that this is gonna be the last chapter, and then there’s gonna be a squeal of the sixth year. Because I’m a multi shipper incapable of making decisions, the next work will involve piper/Jason/Percy/Annabeth, I hope that’s chill with everyone, but it shouldn’t be too in your face

“Blessed by Hecate?” Draco cocked his head, carding his fingers through Harry’s hair soothingly. “Why would she do that?” 

“Well I assume it’s the beginning of her honouring our deal. We kill Voldy, you three get blessed so you can cross the time stream at will.” Nico shrugged. “Try cast a spell. See if it’s more powerful or something.” 

Will pressed the back of his hand against Harry’s forehead gently. His hand glowed for a second. “Maybe don’t do that for an hour or so. Your mana is low as hell kiddo.” 

Harry wrinkled his nose. “So why did your dad show up, Nico?”

Nico sighed dramatically and slumped against Will. “Well, he came because I asked him too, but I’m not entirely sure why he brought mom. Or why they started talking about mama.” 

“Baby I think that was ‘Seph’s way of tellin’ you that they’re tryna get your mama back.” Will murmured gently, kissing Nico’s hair. “When we went for dinner last month your dad mentioned sortin’ our some paperwork and he didn’t wanna say anythin’ t’ya until he was sure.” 

Draco hummed thoughtfully. “Zeus killed your mama right?” He waited until Nico nodded, then continued. “Well gods can’t interfere with mortals on that level, not unless the mortal challenges the god to some sort of fight. So Zeus killing Maria is against the Ancient Laws. So if Hades hashed it out with the fates and some other important people, he could reasonably argue that since Maria’s death was unlawful, he’s within his rights to bring her back. You can’t just kill the mortal consort of the King and Queen of the Underworld, mother of the Prince of the Underworld, and expect shit not to go sideways. Except Zeus is the King of the Gods so Hades can’t just go and fight him, but he may be within his rights to bring Maria back.”

Everyone stared at him for a beat. “What?” He squirmed slightly and tucked himself closer to Harry. “Jay’s in law school. He makes me run through all sorts of arguments with him. Plus him and Hades are kinda tight because of the whole Nico Di Angelo protection squad, so Hades has plans to give him some work.” 

Will was frantically shaking his head, as Nico raised an eyebrow dangerously. “The Nico Di Angelo Protection Squad?” He repeated slowly.

Draco shrugged. “It doesn’t really exist anymore, but back when you were a depressed ball of emo angst and rage, it was totally a thing.” 

“Depressed ball of emo angst and rage?” 

“Okay so it was more like you were a teenager going through unimaginable trauma, but yeah pretty much.” 

“Who’s in it?” 

“Uh, Will, the Seven, Reyna, Thalia,-“

“Wait wait wait.” Nico held his hands up. “Thalia Grace is in this?” 

Hermione coughed awkwardly. “Who’s Thalia Grace?” 

Nico shrugged. “My best friend’s sister, and my honorary sister’s girlfriend.” 

Draco lit up. “Wait, Thalia and Reyna got together? Finally!”

Will nodded dramatically. “It was a whole thing. Jason and Nico threw a celebratory party to commemorate the end of all the pining.” 

“Actually me and Jay just wanted an excuse to get Percy drunk and it gave us an opportunity.” 

Will frowned. “Why did you want to get Percy drunk?”

Nico grinned evilly. “Percy’s powers are more tied into his emotions than the rest of us, so he’s at his most powerful when he’s super happy or something. So we got him drunk, gave him lots of blue food, and then he lifted half of Long Island Sound so we could put some skeletons dressed like campers down there for when we took new campers canoeing.” 

“I can’t believe I’m in love with you, you’re a horrible person.” Will sighed. “Anyways back to the original point. Hecate will probably bless you two soon.” He motioned to Hermione and Ron. “It’ll lower your mana just like it did to Harry, but it should make you more powerful.” 

Hermione nodded slowly. “Will it knock us out or was Harry unconscious anyway?” 

Will shrugged. “I’ve got no idea. Most blessings don’t knock the receiver out but I’ve only ever dealt with demigods receiving blessings, not mortals. Anyways, you should all go to sleep. You can stay here for the night if you’d like.” 

Nico shoved a hand into the shadows and pulled Nightmare out, before promptly falling asleep, head on Will’s chest.

Ron looked at the pair of them weirdly. “How the bloody hell does he do that?” 

“He can fall asleep literally anywhere.” Will shrugged, adjusting himself slightly so Nico wouldn’t get a crick in his neck. “I think it’s from when he took the Athena Parthenon from Greece to New York. He would literally fall asleep the second they got out of the shadows at every location and he never really lost the habit.”

Ron’s face softened and he nodded. He muttered a charm and the bed widened. “That might be a bit more comfortable for us all.” He smiled.

Hermione looked at him. “I don’t even know that charm. Where did you learn it?”

He blushed. “Oh, erm. My mum uses it. When we can’t afford another of something she just makes it bigger.” He muttered, red high on his cheeks. 

Will smiled at him gratefully. “Thanks, I’ll wake everybody up when it’s time for breakfast, okay?” 

——

Breakfast the next morning was absolute chaos. As they’d expected, news had spread throughout the school pretty damn quickly, and Nico didn’t even bother putting his robes on, but instead showed up at breakfast in black jeans and Will’s hoodie, sword strapped to his belt. Harry thought that the fact that he was drowning in a bright yellow hoodie that clearly belonged to 21 year old will completely subtracted from the fear radiating from the sword, but Draco had deigned to join them at the Gryffindor Table and was currently pressed against Harry’s side like he belonged there, and as such Harry was having difficulty forming basic sentences. 

Seamus ruffled Nico’s hair as he walked over. “Nice hoodie you’ve got there Nico.” 

Nico batted at his hand, whining pathetically. “I will banish your soul you little hellion.” 

He laughed. “I’d like to see you try. I’d just pester your dad about the threesome he had and he’d get so annoyed he’d kick me right back out.” 

“The audacity.” Nico mumbled, almost delirious. “William. I’ve decided I want another two.” 

Will rolled his eyes. “Your dad is going to hate you. The only reason you’ve not got Jay, Pipes, Reyna, Hazel, and Frank as well is that their parents have offered similar things.” 

He pouted. “Not all of them. But I like this one. I think Uncle Thanny would wanna apprentice him.”

Seamus watched the pair curiously. “Nico.. did you just refer to the god of death as uncle Thanny? Can I meet him? Does he have wings? Hermione mentioned he’s a counterpart to Cupid, so is he fit?” 

“I’ll ask him if he’ll come visit you later. Now leave me alone. Go bother your boyfriend. I need caffeine.” 

Seamus smirked and moved to sit next to Dean. 

Will sighed at Nico. “Hon, I know you’re getting attached, but you can’t hand out godhood to everyone you meet.”

“I know that, but Hecate won’t bless that many people so they can cross the time stream, and Hades says the river spirits want to move on to wherever gods go when they fade, so that’s five spots right there, Thanatos wants an apprentice because he wants to have more time to fuck Triton, and Hazel is going to work for Hecate post death so that’s an extra thing free. Plus dad is willing to mentor a few people so he can have helper for a few hundred years and he’ll upgrade them to minor gods after that.”

“And let me guess,” Will grinned at him fondly. “If you find him the number of people he wants, he won’t make us do paperwork for a couple hundred years.” 

“Bingo.” Nico poured himself a cup of coffee. “So if we count these four, Seamus, Dean, and I’m thinking Ginny and maybe Luna, then I believe we’ll have the right number.” 

——

Thanatos did show up to contemplate the idea of taking on Seamus as his apprentice. They took to each other immediately, what with their identical penchant for taking the piss out of Nico. 

After making sure they got along, Nico took Will aside. “I think we might have to be here for another year.” He said regretfully.

Will frowned. “What do you mean? Why?” 

“I’ve been trying to reach out with my senses to find out where the other horcruxes will be, but the magic is messing with them too much. I’m never gonna be able to get them in three weeks time.” 

“I...” he drew Nico closer. “I think I’d like to be here for another year.” He murmured gently.

Nico smiled faintly. “Me too. I wish some of our friends could be here though. Annabeth would adore it, and I reckon Jay would be a fantastic quidditch player.”

“Percy would love the lake.” Will added. “And I bet piper would cast incredible charms.”

“Frank would be the most advanced animagus ever. Hazel would be an extremely powerful witch all round.” 

“Leo would love the challenge of magic Hogwarts proof tech. I’m pretty sure Cally would enjoy being here too.”

“I think Reyna would enjoy learning a new style of battle. Do you think Hecate will let us go back for the summer?”

“I don’t think she can stop us, really. Besides if you miss Jay and Percy’s birthdays, they’ll probably storm Olympus.”

Nico laughed. “That’s true.” 

Hecate cleared her throat from behind them, and the pair jumped. “You will be returning home for the summer.” She declared. “And briefing four demigods of your choice, who will return to Hogwarts with you next September. You may not bring Hazel Levesque, I will have need of her in the coming months, and I request that you do not bring Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano. Her mother and my Roman aspect are currently at odds, and I fear Bellona would not appreciate my bringing her into this domain.” 

She vanished in a whirl of purple mist, little blue and pink sparks dancing with dust particles.

“Jason, Percy, Annabeth, Piper.” Nico listed off immediately.

Will shrugged. “Yeah, I figured that too. I can’t wait to see Ginny and Luna meet Piper. She’ll blow their sweet gay minds.”

Nico laughed. “I just wanna know whether the Hogwarts population will be more deeply in love with Jay or Perce.”

“That’s easy. They’ll like both, and watching the two kiss will cause several aneurisms.” Will kissed Nico’s hair. “The awesome foursome. Hogwarts won’t survive it.” 

“I still can’t believe the four of them got together.” Nico dragged Will over to a sofa, and pushed him into it before sitting on him.

“Really? Piper is a daughter of Aphrodite, and they’re known for complicated relationships, Annabeth is too pragmatic to let them all pine for each other, and we all saw Jason and Percy coming from a long way off.” 

“Oh it’s not that I can’t believe they’re all attracted to each other, I’ve known that for ages, it’s more that Jason still has some weird self flagellation tendencies, and Percy is the most observant person ever except for his own relationships.”

“That’s true. Hogwarts really isn’t gonna survive the four of them, you know that?”

Nico grinned up at him, yellow hoodie making him seem tiny. “It’s going to be beautiful. Absolutely glorious destruction.”

——

The next three weeks absolutely flew by. Nico and Will started preparing the other students for the absolute chaos that would be Piper and Percy taking on the school, and Jason and Annabeth would be too busy geeking out about the architecture and history to even try reigning them in. 

On the last day, Dumbledore expanded the couple’s dorm so that it would hold the four of them, although he seemed a bit scandalised at the idea of making a bed for four, no matter how accepting he’d been of the two of them. At Nico’s request, he’d also added two spare rooms with two beds each, in case Draco, Harry, Ron, or Hermione felt more comfortable staying there. 

Hecate had allowed them to take Harry, Ron, Hermione, Seamus, Dean, Ginny, and Luna back to Camp Half-Blood for three weeks of the summer, as long as they got permission from their parents, and had set up a portal at King’s Cross for them to go back. 

Nico shepherded the seven of them through, before walking through with Will and Draco. In Camp Half-Blood, the seven of Prophecy, along with Thalia and Reyna, were waiting for them, and once the wizards had moved out of the way, they descended on Will and Nico like a pack of harpies, yelling about how they’d missed them and how was Hogwarts and who were the kids.

Once they’d managed to separate and were all sat around next to the Strawberry Fields, picnic set out, Nico dropped the bomb.

“So..Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Percy...the fearsome foursome..how do you fancy going back with us in September?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos always appreciation, constructive criticism welcome. Come find me on tumblr under the same name and leave me a message or an ask xx

**Author's Note:**

> Please find me on tumblr under the same name, and kudos and comments are appreciated if you enjoy :)


End file.
